A.   P.   Lange 


Education 


|L 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 


THE    PSYCHOLOGY 
OF    PEOPLES 


By  Gustave   Le  Bon 

Author   of   "The 

Crowd  " 


NEW  YORK 
THE    MACMILLAN   CO, 


L35 


[All  rights  reserved.] 


CONTENTS 


BOOK  I 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  RACES 
CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

THE  SOUL  OF  RACES .       3-16 

How  the  naturalists  classify  species — Application  of  their 
methods  to  man — Defective  side  of  the  classifications  of  the 
human  races  at  present  in  vogue — Foundations  of  a  psycho- 
logical description — The  average  types  of  the  races — How  they 
may  be  established  by  observation — The  psychological  factors 
which  determine  the  average  type  of  a  race — The  influence  of 
ancestors  and  that  of  the  immediate  parents — Common  psycho- 
logical groundwork  possessed  by  all  the  individuals  of  a  race — 
Immense  influence  of  bygone  generations  on  the  present 
generation— Mathematical  reasons  for  this  influence — How 
the  collective  soul  has  spread  from  the  family  to  the  village, 
from  the  city  to  the  surrounding  district — Advantages  and 
dangers  of  the  conception  of  the  city — Circumstances  under 
which  the  formation  of  the  collective  soul  is  impossible — 
Example  of  Italy — How  the  natural  races  have  given  way  to 
the  historic  races. 

CHAPTER  II 

THE  LIMITS  OF  THE   VARIABILITY  OF   THE  CHA- 
RACTER OF  RACES 17-24 

The  variability  of  the  character  of  races,  and  not  its  fixity, 
constitutes  the  apparent  rule — Reasons  for  this  appearance — 
Invariability  of  the  fundamental  characteristics  and  variability 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

of  the  secondary  characteristics — Analogies  between  the 
psychological  characteristics  and  the  irreducible  and  modifiable 
characteristics  of  the  animal  species — It  is  only  environment, 
circumstances,  and  education  that  influence  the  accessory 
psychological  characteristics — The  possibilities  of  character — 
Examples  furnished  by  the  different  periods — The  men  of  the 
Terror — What  they  became  at  different  periods — How 
national  characteristics  endure  in  spite  of  revolutions — Various 
examples — Conclusion. 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  HIERARCHY  OF  RACES  .       .      25-38 

Psychological  classification  is  based,  as  are  anatomical  assi- 
fications,  on  the  determination  of  a  small  number  of  irreducible 
and  fundamental  characteristics — Psychological  classification 
of  the  human  races — The  primitive  races — The  inferior  races 
— The  average  races — The  superior  races — The  psychological 
elements  the  grouping  of  which  allows  of  this  classification — 
The  elements  which  are  of  the  most  importance — Character — 
Morality — The  intellectual  qualities  are  modifiable  by  educa- 
tion— The  qualities  appertaining  to  character  are  irreducible 
and  constitute  the  unvarying  element  in  each  people — Their 
role  in  history — Why  it  is  impossible  for  different  races  to 
understand  and  influence  one  another — The  reasons  why  it  is 
impossible  for  an  inferior  people  to  adopt  a  superior  civilisation. 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE    PROGRESSIVE    DIFFERENTIATION    OF    INDI- 
VIDUALS AND  RACES 39-49 

The  inequality  between  the  different  individuals  of  a  race  is 
greater  in  proportion  to  the  superiority  of  the  race — Mental 
equality  of  all  the  individuals  of  inferior  races — To  appreciate 
the  differences  that  separate  races,  the  superior  individuals  of 
each  people  and  not  its  average  representatives  must  be  com- 
pared— The  progress  of  civilisation  tends  towards  a  greater 
and  greater  differentiation  of  individuals  and  races — Conse- 
quences of  this  differentiation — The  psychological  reasons 
which  prevent  its  becoming  too  considerable — The  individuals 
of  the  superior  races  are  highly  differentiated  as  regards  their 
intelligence,  and  very  slightly  so  as  regards  their  character — 
How  heredity  constantly  tends  to  reduce  individual  superiorities 
to  the  average  type  of  the  race — Anatomical  observations 
confirming  the  progressive  psychological  differentiation  of 
races,  individuals,  and  sexes. 


CONTENTS  vii 

CHAPTER  V 

PAGE 

FORMATION  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  RACES  .       .       .      50-60 

How  historical  races  are  formed — Conditions  which  allow  of 
different  races  combining  to  form  a  single  race — Influence 
of  the  number  of  the  individuals  involved  in  the  process,  of 
the  dissimilarity  of  their  characters,  of  the  environments,  etc. 
— Results  of  cross-breeding — Causes  of  the  great  inferiority  of 
half-breeds — Mobility  of  the  new  psychological  characteristics 
created  by  cross-breeding—  How  these  characteristics  come  to 
be  fixed — The  critical  periods  of  history — Cross-breeding 
constitutes  an  essential  factor  in  the  formation  of  new  races, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  powerful  factor  in  the  dissolution  of 
civilisations — Importance  of  the  regime  of  castes — Influence 
of  environment — Environment  can  only  exert  its  influence  on 
new  races  in  process  of  formation,  and  on  races  whose 
ancestral  characteristics  are  giving  way  before  the  action  of 
cross-breeding — Environment  is  without  influence  on  old 
races — Various  examples — The  majority  of  the  historical  races 
of  Europe  are  still  in  process  of  formation — Political  and 
social  consequences — Why  the  period  of  formation  of  his- 
torical races  will  soon  be  over. 


BOOK  II 

HO IV  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF 
RACES  ARE  DISPLAYED  IN  THE  VARIOUS  ELE- 
MENTS OF  THEIR  CIVILISATIONS 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  VARIOUS  ELEMENTS  OF  A  CIVILISATION  CON- 
SIDERED AS  AN  EXTERIOR  MANIFESTATION 
OF  THE  SOUL  OF  A  PEOPLE  ....  63-80 

The  elements  of  which  a  civilisation  is  composed  are  the 
exterior  manifestations  of  the  soul  of  the  peoples  which  have 
created  them — The  importance  of  these  various  elements 
varies  with  the  different  peoples — According  to  the  several 
peoples  it  is  the  arts,  literature,  institutions,  etc.,  that  fill  the 
fundamental  role — Examples  from  antiquity :  the  Egyptians, 
Greeks,  and  Romans — The  evolution  of  the  different  elements 
of  a  civilisation  may  be  independent  of  the  general  march  of 
that  civilisation— Examples  supplied  by  the  arts — What  they 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

express — Impossibility  of  finding  in  a  single  element  of  a 
civilisation  the  measure  of  the  level  of  that  civilisation — 
Elements  which  assure  the  superiority  of  a  people — Elements 
which  philosophically  are  very  inferior  may  be  socially  very 
superior. 

CHAPTER  II 

How  INSTITUTIONS,  RELIGIONS,  AND  LANGUAGES 

ARE  TRANSFORMED  .        .        .  .        .81-99 

The  superior  races  are  as  powerless  as  the  inferior  races  to 
transform  suddenly  the  elements  of  their  civilisation — Contra- 
dictions presented  by  the  peoples  which  have  changed  their 
religions,  languages,  and  arts — The  example  of  Japan — In 
what  respect  these  changes  are  only  apparent — The  profound 
transformations  undergone  by  Buddhism,  Brahmanism,  Ma- 
hometanism  and  Christianity  according  to  the  various  races 
by  which  they  have  been  adopted — The  variations  undergone 
by  institutions  and  languages  according  to  the  race  that  adopts 
them — That  the  words  which  in  different  languages  are  con- 
sidered to  correspond  represent  very  dissimilar  ideas  and 
modes  of  thought — Impossibility  for  this  reason  of  translating 
certain  languages — Why,  in  books  of  history,  the  civilisation 
of  a  people  sometimes  seems  to  have  undergone  profound 
changes  —  Limits  of  the  reciprocal  influence  of  different 
civilisations. 

CHAPTER  III 
How  THE  ARTS  ARE  TRANSFORMED      .       .       .    100-126 

Application  of  the  principles  already  set  forth  to  the  study  of 
the  evolution  of  the  arts  among  the  Oriental  peoples — Egypt 
— The  religious  ideas  from  which  its  arts  are  derived — De- 
velopments that  await  its  arts  when  they  are  transplanted 
amid  different  races :  Ethiopians,  Greeks,  and  Persians — 
Primitive  inferiority  of  Grecian  art — Slowness  of  its  evolution — 
Adoption  and  evolution  in  Persia  of  Grecian  art,  Egyptian  art, 
and  Assyrian  art — The  transformations  undergone  by  the  arts 
depend  on  the  race  and  not  on  religious  beliefs — Examples 
supplied  by  the  great  transformations  undergone  by  Arabian 
art  according  to  the  races  which  have  adopted  Islamism — 
Application  of  our  principles  to  the  investigation  of  the  origin 
and  evolution  of  the  arts  in  India — India  and  Greece  went  to 
the  same  sources,  but  in  consequence  of  the  diversity  of  the 
races  they  developed  arts  having  no  relationship — Immense 
transformations  undergone  by  architecture  in  India  among  the 
different  races  in  spite  of  the  similarity  of  their  beliefs. 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGE 

BOOK  III 

THE  HISTORY  OF  PEOPLES  CONSIDERED  AS  A 
CONSEQUENCE  OF  THEIR  CHARACTER 

CHAPTER  I 

How  THE  SOUL  OF  PEOPLES  is  RESPONSIBLE  FOR 

THEIR  INSTITUTIONS 129-137 

The  history  of  a  people  is  always  determined  by  its  mental 
constitution — Various  examples — How  the  political  institutions 
of  France  are  the  outcome  of  the  soul  of  the  race — Their  real 
invariability  beneath  their  apparent  variability — Our  most 
different  political  parties  pursue  identical  political  ends  under 
different  names — Their  ideal  is  always  centralisation  and  the 
destruction  of  individual  initiative  to  the  profit  of  the  State — 
How  the  French  Revolution  merely  executed  the  programme 
of  the  old  monarchy — Contrast  between  the  ideal  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  and  the  Latin  ideal — The  initiative  of  the  citizen 
substituted  for  the  initiative  of  the  State — Peoples'  institutions 
are  always  the  outcome  of  their  character. 

CHAPTER  II 

APPLICATION  OF  PRECEDING  PRINCIPLES  TO  THE 
COMPARATIVE  STUDY  OF  THE  EVOLUTION 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA  AND 
OF  THE  SPANISH-AMERICAN  REPUBLICS  .  138-152 

The  English  character — How  the  American  soul  has  been 
formed — Severity  of  the  selection  resulting  from  the  conditions 
of  existence — Forced  disappearance  of  the  inferior  elements — 
The  negroes  and  the  Chinese — Reasons  of  the  prosperity  of 
the  United  States  and  of  the  decadence  of  the  Spanish- 
American  republics  in  spite  of  identical  political  institutions — 
Inevitable  anarchy  of  the  Spanish-American  republics  as  a 
consequence  of  the  inferiority  of  the  characteristics  of  the  race. 

CHAPTER  III 

How  THE  MODIFICATION  OF  THE  SOUL  OF  RACES 
AFFECTS  THE  HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF 
PEOPLES 153-164 

The  influence  of  foreign  elements  at  once  transforms  the  soul 
of  a  race,  and  in  consequence  its  civilisation — Example  of  the 
Romans — Roman  civilisation  was  not  destroyed  by  military 


CONTENTS 

p 

invasions,  but  by  the  pacific  invasions  of  the  Barbarians — The 
Barbarians  never  formed  the  project  of  destroying  the  Empire 
— Their  invasions  were  not  of  the  nature  of  conquests — The 
early  Frank  chiefs  always  considered  themselves  to  be 
functionaries  of  the  Roman  Empire — They  always  respected 
Roman  civilisation,  and  their  aim  was  to  continue  it — It  was 
only  from  the  seventh  century  onwards  that  the  Gallic  barbarian 
chiefs  ceased  to  consider  the  Emperor  as  their  superior — The 
complete  transformation  of  Roman  civilisation  was  not  the 
consequence  of  a  work  of  destruction,  but  of  the  adoption  of 
an  ancient  civilisation  by  a  new  race — The  modern  invasions 
of  the  United  States — The  civil  strife  and  the  breaking  up  of 
the  United  States  into  independent  and  rival  States  to  which 
these  invasions  will  lead — The  invasion  of  France  by 
foreigners  and  their  consequences. 


BOOK  IV 

HOW  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL    CHARACTERISTICS    OF 
RACES  ARE  MODIFIED. 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  ROLE  OF  IDEAS  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  PEOPLES  .      167-189 

The  leading  ideas  of  each  civilisation  are  always  very  few  in 
number — Extreme  slowness  of  their  birth  and  disappearance 
— Ideas  do  not  influence  conduct  until  they  have  been  trans- 
formed into  sentiments — They  then  form  part  of  the  character 
— It  is  thanks  to  the  slowness  of  the  evolution  of  ideas  that 
civilisations  possess  a  certain  fixity — How  ideas  take  root — 
The  reason  has  no  influence  whatever — The  influence  of 
affirmation  and  prestige — The  role  of  enthusiasts  and  apostles 
— Deformation  undergone  by  ideas  as  they  penetrate  the 
masses — A  universally  admitted  idea  soon  influences  all  the 
elements  of  civilisation — It  is  thanks  to  their  community  of 
ideas  that  the  men  of  each  age  have  a  sum  total  of  average 
conceptions  which  makes  them  very  much  alike  in  their 
thoughts  and  actions — The  yoke  of  custom  and  opinion — It  is 
not  relaxed  until  the  critical  ages  of  history  when  the  old 
ideas  are  losing  their  influence  and  have  not  as  yet  been 
replaced — This  critical  age  is  the  only  age  in  which  the  dis- 
cussion of  opinions  can  be  tolerated — Dogmas  only  hold  their 
own  on  the  condition  that  they  are  not  discussed — Peoples 
cannot  change  their  ideas  and  dogmas  without  being  at  once 
obliged  to  change  their  civilisation. 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  II 

PAGE 

THE  ROLE  OF  RELIGIOUS  BELIEFS  IN  THE  EVOLU- 
TION OF  CIVILISATIONS 190-198 

Preponderating  influence  of  religious  ideas — They  have  always 
constituted  the  most  important  element  of  the  life  of  peoples — 
Religious  ideas  responsible  for  the  majority  of  historical  events 
and  social  and  political  institutions  —  A  new  civilisation 
always  comes  into  existence  with  a  new  religious  idea — Power 
of  the  religious  ideal — Its  influence  on  character — It  directs 
all  the  faculties  towards  the  same  end — The  political,  artistic, 
and  literary  history  of  peoples  is  the  offspring  of  their  beliefs — 
The  slightest  change  in  the  state  of  a  people's  belief  results  in 
an  entire  series  of  transformations  in  its  existence — Various 
examples. 

CHAPTER  III 

THE  ROLE  OF  GREAT  MEN  IN  THE  HISTORY  OF 

PEOPLES 199-208 

The  great  advances  made  by  each  civilisation  have  always 
been  realised  by  a  small  elite  of  superior  minds — Nature  of 
their  role — They  synthesise  all  the  efforts  of  a  race — Examples 
supplied  by  great  discoveries — Political  role  of  great  men — 
They  embody  the  dominant  ideal  of  their  race — Influence  of 
the  great  hallucinated — Inventors  of  genius  transform  a 
civilisation — The  fanatics  and  the  hallucinated  make  history. 


BOOK  V 

THE  DISSOCIATION  OF  THE   CHARACTER   OF  RACES 
AND   THEIR  DECADENCE 

CHAPTER  I 
How  CIVILISATIONS  FADE  AWAY  AND  DIE  OUT    .    211-229 

Dissolution  of  psychological  species — How  hereditary  dis- 
positions which  had  required  centuries  for  their  formation 
may  be  rapidly  lost — A  very  long  time  is  always  necessary  for 
a  people  to  raise  itself  to  a  high  level  of  civilisation,  and  in 
some  cases  a  very  short  time  for  it  to  descend  therefrom — The 
principal  factor  in  the  decadence  of  a  people  is  the  lowering  of 
its  character — The  mechanism  of  the  dissolution  of  civilisations 


xii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

has  hitherto  been  the  same  for  all  peoples — Symptoms  of 
decadence  presented  by  some  Latin  peoples — Development  of 
egoism — Diminution  of  initiative  and  will  power — Lowering 
of  character  and  morality — The  youth  of  the  present  day — 
Probable  influence  of  Socialism—  Its  dangers  and  its  strength 
— How  it  will  cause  the  civilisations  that  undergo  it  to  return 
to  wholly  barbarous  forms  of  evolution — The  peoples  among 
whom  it  will  be  able  to  triumph. 

CHAPTER  II 
GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS    .       ...       .       .    230-236 


INTRODUCTION 

MODERN    IDEAS   ON    SOCIAL   EQUALITY  AND   THE 
PSYCHOLOGICAL  BASIS   OF   HISTORY 

Origin  and  development  of  the  idea  of  equality  —  The  consequences  it 
has  had  —  The  price  already  paid  for  its  application  —  Its  influence 
at  the  present  day  on  the  masses  —  The  problems  examined  in  the 
present  work  —  An  inquiry  into  the  principal  factors  of  the  general 
evolution  of  peoples  —  Is  this  evolution  determined  by  institutions  ? 
—  The  elements  of  each  civilisation  :  institutions,  arts,  creeds,  etc.  , 
and  whether  they  have  not  certain  psychological  foundations 
peculiar  to  each  people  ?  —  The  element  of  chance  in  history  and 
its  permanent  laws. 


f^HE  civilisation  of  a  people  is  based  on  a  small 
•*•  number  of  fundamental  ideas,  which  determine 
its  institutions,  its  literature  and  its  arts.  These  ideas 
come  very  slowly  into  being,  and  they  are  also  very 
slow  to  disappear.  Long  after  their  erroneous  nature 
has  become  clear  to  cultivated  minds,  they  remain 
indisputable  truths  for  the  masses,  and  continue  to 
exert  their  influence  on  the  rank  and  file  of  a  nation. 
It  is  difficult  to  obtain  recognition  for  a  new  idea, 
but  it  is  no  less  difficult  to  discredit  an  idea  that  has 

xiii 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

long  been  generally  accepted.  Humanity  has  always 
been  exceedingly  loth  to  abandon  its  decayed  ideas 
and  its  moribund  gods. 

It  is  barely  a  century  and  a  half  ago  that  certain 
philosophers,  who,  it  should  be  remarked,  were  very 
ignorant  of  the  primitive  history  of  man,  of  the  varia- 
tions of  his  mental  constitution  and  of  the  laws  of 
heredity,  propounded  the  idea  of  the  equality  of 
individuals  and  races. 

This  idea,  which  would  naturally  be  most  attractive 
to  the  masses,  ended  by  firmly  implanting  itself  in 
their  mind,  and  speedily  bore  fruit.  It  has  shaken 
the  foundation  of  the  old  societies,  given  birth  to 
the  most  formidable  of  revolutions,  and  thrown  the 
Western  world  into  a  series  of  convulsions,  the  end 
of  which  it  is  impossible  to  foresee. 

Doubtless  certain  of  the  inequalities  among  indi- 
viduals and  races  were  too  apparent  to  be  seriously 
disputed ;  but  people  found  it  easy  to  persuade  them- 
selves that  these  inequalities  were  merely  the  outcome 
of  differences  of  education,  that  all  men  are  born 
equally  intelligent  and  good,  and  that  the  sole  respon- 
sibility for  their  perversion  lies  with  the  institutions 
they  live  under.  This  being  the  case  the  remedy  was 
simple  in  the  extreme :  all  that  had  to  be  done  was 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

to  reform  the  institutions  and  to  give  every  man  an 
identical  education.  It  is  in  this  way  that  institutions 
and  education  have  ended  by  becoming  the  great 
panaceas  of  modern  democrats,  the  means  of  reme- 
dying inequalities  which  clash  with  the  immortal 
principles  that  are  the  only  divinities  that  survive 
to-day. 

And  yet  science,  as  it  has  progressed,  has  proved 
the  vanity  of  the  theories  of  equality  and  shown  that 
the  mental  gulf  created  by  the  past  between  indi- 
viduals and  races  can  only  be  filled  up  by  the  slowly 
accumulating  action  of  heredity.  Modern  psychology, 
together  with  the  stern  lessons  of  experience,  has 
demonstrated  that  the  institutions  and  the  education 
which  suit  some  individuals  and  some  races  are  most 
harmful  to  others.  But  when  ideas  are  once  in  circu- 
lation it  is  not  in  the  power  of  philosophers  to  destroy 
them  when  they  arrive  at  the  conviction  that  they  are 
erroneous.  Like  a  swollen  stream  that  has  overflown 
its  banks,  the  idea  continues  its  destructive  progress 
with  which  nothing  can  interfere. 

There  is  no  psychologist,  no  traveller,  no  fairly 
intelligent  statesman  who  is  not  aware  how  erroneous 
is  this  chimerical  notion  of  the  equality  of  men, 
which  has  thrown  the  world  into  confusion,  brought 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

about  in  Europe  a  gigantic  revolution,  involved 
America  in  the  sanguinary  War  of  Succession,  and 
landed  all  the  French  colonies  in  a  state  of  lamentable 
decadence ;  yet  in  spite  of  this  knowledge  they  are 
few  indeed  who  venture  to  combat  this  notion. 

Moreover  the  idea  of  equality,  far  from  being  on 
the  decline,  continues  to  make  headway.  It  is  in  the 
name  of  this  idea  that  socialism,  which  seems  destined 
to  enslave  before  long  the  majority  of  Western  peo- 
ples, pretends  to  ensure  their  welfare.  It  is  in  its 
name  that  the  modern  woman,  forgetting  the  deep- 
lying  mental  differences  that  separate  her  from  man, 
claims  the  same  rights  and  the  same  education  as  man, 
and  will  end,  if  she  be  triumphant,  in  making  of  the 
European  a  nomad  without  a  home  or  a  family. 

The  masses  scarcely  trouble  themselves  about  the 
political  and  social  upheavals  to  which  these  levelling 
principles  have  given  rise  or  about  the  far  graver 
events  they  have  yet  to  bring  forth,  and  the  states- 
men of  the  present  day  are  in  power  too  short  a  time 
for  them  to  be  more  heedful.  Moreover  public 
opinion  has  become  the  sovereign  authority,  and  it 
would  be  impossible  not  to  bow  to  it. 

The  only  real  measure  of  the  social  importance  of 
an  idea  is  the  influence  it  exerts  on  men's  minds. 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

The  degree  of  truth  or  error  it  contains  is  only  of 
interest  from  a  philosophic  point  of  view.  When  an 
idea  has  come  to  be  a  sentiment  with  the  masses,  all 
the  consequences  it  involves  must  be  undergone  in 
succession. 

We  see  then  that  it  is  by  means  of  education  and 
institutions  that  the  modern  dream  of  equality  en- 
deavours to  seek  realisation.  It  is  in  their  name  that, 
reforming  the  unjust  laws  of  nature,  we  attempt  to 
cast  in  the  same  mould  the  intelligences  of  the 
negroes  of  the  Martinique,  of  the  Guadeloupe  and 
of  the  Senegal,  those  of  the  Arabs  of  Algeria  and 
finally  those  of  the  Asiatics.  The  chimera  is  doubt- 
less quite  unrealisable,  but  experience  alone  can  show 
the  danger  of  chimeras.  Reason  is  incapable  of 
transforming  men's  convictions. 

The  object  of  this  work  is  to  describe  the  psycho- 
logical characteristics  which  constitute  the  soul  of 
races,  and  to  show  how  the  history  of  a  people  and 
its  civilisation  are  determined  by  these  characteristics. 
Neglecting  details,  or  only  considering  them  so  far  as 
they  are  indispensable  to  the  proof  of  the  principles 
advanced,  we  shall  examine  the  formation  and  mental 

constitution  of  the  historic  races,  that  is  of  the  races 

i* 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

•> 

jff  artificially  formed  in  historic  times  by  the  chances  of 

conquest,  immigration  and  political  changes,  and  we 
•  shall  endeavour  to  demonstrate  that  their  history  is 
determined  by  their  mental  constitution.  We  shall 
'-  note  the  degree  of  fixity  or  variability  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  races.  We  shall  try  to  find  out  whether 
individuals  and  peoples  tend  towards  equality  or,  on 
the  contrary,  towards  greater  and  greater  differen- 
tiation. We  shall  then  examine  whether  the  elements 
composing  a  civilisation,  its  arts,  its  institutions,  its 
beliefs,  are  not  direct  manifestations  of  the  soul  of 

races,  and  whether  in  consequence  it  is  not  impossible 
v 

that  they  should  pass  from  one  people  to  another. 

We  shall  conclude  by  attempting  to  determine  what 
are  the  necessities  under  the  influence  of  which 
civilisations  decay  and  die  out.  We  have  dealt  at 
length  with  the  problems  in  question  in  various  works 
on  the  civilisations  of  the  East.  This  short  volume 
should  be  regarded  as  a  brief  synthesis. 

The  point  that  has  remained  most  clearly  fixed  in 
my  mind,  after  long  journeys  through  the  most  varied 
countries,  is  that  each  people  possesses  a  mental 
constitution  as  unaltering  as  its  anatomical  charac- 
teristics, a  constitution  which  is  the  source  of  its 
sentiments,  thoughts,  institutions,  beliefs  and  arts. 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

Tocqueville  and  other  illustrious  thinkers  have  ima- 
gined that  they  have  discovered  in  the  institutions  of 
the  various  peoples  the  cause  of  their  evolution.  I, 
on  the  contrary,  am  persuaded  and  hope  to  prove, 
while  choosing  my  examples  from  the  countries 
studied  by  Tocqueville,  that  institutions  are  of  ex- 
tremely slight  importance  as  regards  the  evolution  of 
civilisation.  They  are  most  often  effects  and  but 
very  rarely  causes. 

The  history  of  peoples  is  determined,  no  doubt,  by 
very  different  factors.  It  is  full  of  particular  cases, 
of  accidents  which  have  taken  place  but  which  might 
not  have  taken  place.  Side  by  side,  however,  with 
these  chances,  with  these  accidental  circumstances, 
there  are  great  permanent  laws  which  govern  the 
general  course  of  each  civilisation.  The  mental  con- 
stitution of  races  proceeds  from  the  most  general,  the 
most  primordial  of  these  permanent  laws.  The  life 
of  a  people,  its  institutions,  beliefs,  and  arts  are  but 
the  visible  expression  of  its  invisible  soul.  For  a 
people  to  transform  its  institutions,  beliefs,  and  arts  it 
must  first  transform  its  soul ;  to  enable  it  to  bequeath 
its  civilisation  to  another  people,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary that  it  should  be  able  to  bequeath  its  soul. 
Doubtless  this  is  not  what  history  teaches,  but  we 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

shall  easily  show  that  in  recording  contrary  assertions 
it  has  allowed  itself  to  be  misled  by  vain  appearances. 

The  reformers  who  have  followed  one  another  for 
a  century  past  have  endeavoured  to  change  every- 
thing :  Gods,  the  earth  and  men ;  but  their  efforts 
have  been  wholly  unavailing  so  far  as  regards  the 
century-old  characteristics  of  the  souls  of  races  which 
time  has  established. 

The  conception  of  the  irreducible  differences  which 
separate  human  beings  is  entirely  contrary  to  the 
ideas  of  modern  socialists,  but  it  is  not  the  teachings 
of  science  that  could  induce  the  apostles  of  a  new 
dogma  to  renounce  their  illusory  doctrines.  Their 
efforts  are  a  new  phase  of  the  eternal  crusade  of 
humanity  in  quest  of  happiness,  that  treasure  of 
Hesperides  for  which  the  peoples  have  been  searching 
from  the  dawn  of  history  onwards.  The  dream  of 
equality  would  perhaps  avail  as  much  as  the  old 
illusions  which  cradled  us  in  the  past,  were  it  not  that 
it  is  destined  to  be  shattered  at  an  early  date  on  the 
immovable  rock  of  natural  inequalities.  Together 
with  old  age  and  death,  these  inequalities  are  a  part  of 
those  apparent  iniquities  of  which  nature  is  full  arid 
to  which  man  must  submit. 


BOOK  I 

THE     PSYCHOLOGICAL     CHARACTERISTICS 
OF  RACES 


BOOK    I 

THE     PSYCHOLOGICAL     CHARACTERISTICS    OF 
RACES 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   SOUL  OF   RACES 

I  low  the  naturalists  classify  species — Application  of  their  methods  to 
man — Defective  side  of  the  classifications  of  the  human  races  at 
present  in  vogue — Foundations  of  a  psychological  description — 
The  average  types  of  the  races — How  they  may  be  established  by 
observation — The  psychological  factors  which  determine  the  aver- 
age type  of  a  race — The  influence  of  ancestors  and  that  of  the 
immediate  parents — Common  psychological  groundwork  possessed 
by  all  the  individuals  of  a  race — Immense  influence  of  bygone 
generations  on  the  present  generation — Mathematical  reasons  for 
this  influence — How  the  collective  soul  has  spread  from  the  family 
to  the  village,  from  the  city  to  the  surrounding  district — Advantages 
and  dangers  of  the  conception  of  the  city — Circumstances  under 
which  the  formation  of  the  collective  soul  is  impossible — Example 
of  Italy — How  the  natural  races  have  given  way  to  the  historic 
races. 

TV  T  ATURALISTS  base  the  classification  of  species 

*  ^      on    the    observation    of    certain    anatomical 

characteristics    regularly  and   constantly  reproduced 


:  TtfEj.PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

by  heredity.  We  are  aware  to-day  that  these  charac- 
teristics are  transformed  by  the  hereditary  accumula- 
tion of  imperceptible  changes.  Still,  if  attention  be 
confined  to  the  comparatively  short  period  covered 
by  history,  the  species  may  be  said  to  be  invariable. 

Applied  to  man,  the  methods  of  classification  of 
the  naturalists  have  allowed  of  the  determining  of  a 
certain  number  of  perfectly  distinct  types.  By  the 
aid  of  clearly  defined  anatomical  characteristics,  such 
as  the  colour  of  the  skin,  and  the  shape  and  volume 
of  the  skull,  it  has  been  possible  to  establish  that  the 
human  race  comprises  several  species  which  are  quite 
distinct  and  probably  of  very  different  origin.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  scientific  men  who  are  respectful  of  religious 
traditions,  these  species  are  simply  races.  However, 
as  has  been  rightly  observed,  "  if  the  Negro  and  the 
Caucasian  were  snails,  all  zoologists  would  affirm 
unanimously  that  they  constitute  excellent  species, 
which  could  never  have  descended  from  the  same 
couple  from  which  they  had  gradually  come  to 
differ." 

These  anatomical  characteristics,  those  at  least  of 
them  that  can  be  traced  by  our  analysis,  only  allow 
of  very  summary  general  divisions.  Their  divergencies 
are  only  perceptible  in  the  case  of  the  most  distinct 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  5 

human  species  ;  of  the  white  and  yellow  races,  or  the 
negroes  for  example.  Peoples,  however,  that  closely 
resemble  one  another  as  regards  their  physique,  may 
be  widely  different  as  regards  their  modes  of  feeling 
and  acting,  and  in  consequence  as  regards  their 
civilisations,  beliefs,  and  arts.  Is  it  possible,  for  in- 
stance, to  class  in  one  and  the  same  group  a  Spaniard, 
an  Englishman,  and  an  Arab?  Are  not  the  mental 
differences  that  exist  between  them  apparent  to 
everybody,  and  to  be  detected  throughout  their 
history  ? 

In  the  absence  of  anatomical  characteristics,  it  has 
been  proposed  to  base  the  classification  of  certain 
peoples  on  various  elements,  such  as  language,  belief, 
and  political  organisation  ;  but  this  mode  of  classifica- 
tion will  scarcely  bear  examination. 

The  elements  of  classification  which  anatomy, 
languages,  environment,  or  political  organisation  are 
incapable  of  furnishing  are  supplied  by  psychology, 
which  shows  that  behind  the  institutions,  arts,  beliefs, 
and  political  upheavals  of  each  people,  lie  certain 
moral  and  intellectual  characteristics  that  determine 
its  evolution.  It  is  the  whole  of  these  characteristics 
that  form  what  may  be  called  the  soul  of  a  race. 

Each  race  possesses  a  mental  constitution  as  un- 


6         THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

varying  as  its  anatomical  constitution.  There  seems  to 
be  no  doubt  that  the  former  corresponds  to  a  certain 
special  structure  of  the  brain,  but  as  science  is  not 
sufficiently  advanced  as  yet  to  acquaint  us  with  this 
structure,  we  cannot  have  recourse  to  it  as  a  basis  of 
classification.  Moreover,  a  knowledge  of  it  would  in 
no  way  modify  the  description  of  the  mental  con- 
stitution of  which  it  is  the  determining  factor  and 
which  is  revealed  to  us  by  observation. 

The  moral  and  intellectual  characteristics,  whose 
association  forms  the  soul  of  a  people,  represent  the 
synthesis  of  its  entire  past,  the  inheritance  of  all  its 
ancestors,  the  motives  of  its  conduct.  They  appear 
to  be  very  variable  in  individuals  of  the  same  race, 
but  observation  proves  that  the  majority  of  the  indi- 
viduals of  a  given  race  always  possess  a  certain 
number  of  common  psychological  characteristics, 
which  are  as  stable  as  the  anatomical  characteristics 
that  allow  of  the  classification  of  species,  while,  like 
these  latter  characteristics,  the  psychological  character- 
istics are  regularly  and  constantly  reproduced  by 
heredity. 

This  aggregate  of  psychological  elements  observable 
jti  all  the  individuals  of  a  race  constitutes  what  may 
rigj>tly  be  called  the  national  character.  Together 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  ^ 

they  form  the  average  type  which  permits  of  a  people 
being  defined.  A  thousand  Frenchmen,  Englishmen, 
or  Chinamen,  chosen  at  hazard,  offer  notable  differ- 
ences amongst  themselves,  but  nevertheless,  owing  to 
racial  heredity,  they  possess  common  characteristics 
which  allow  of  the  determining  of  an  ideal  type  of 
the  Frenchman,  the  Englishman,  and  the  Chinaman 
analogous  to  the  ideal  type  which  the  naturalist  pre- 
sents when  he  describes  in  a  general  manner  the  dog 
or  the  horse.  Applicable  to  the  different  varieties  of 
dogs  or  horses,  such  a  description  can  only  include 
the  characteristics  common  to  them  all  and  not  those 
which  enable  their  numerous  individual  specimens  to 
be  distinguished. 

Provided  a  race  be  sufficiently  ancient,  and  in  con- 
sequence homogeneous,  its  average  type  is  established 
with  sufficient  clearness  for  it  to  be  readily  noted  by 
the  observer. 

When  we  visit  a  foreign  people  the  only  charac- 
teristics that  can  arrest  our  attention  are  precisely 
those  that  are  common  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
country  we  are  travelling  through,  since  they  are  the 
only  characteristics  that  are  constantly  repeated.  The 
individual  characteristics,  being  seldom  repeated, 
escape  us,  and  before  long  we  not  only  distinguish 


8  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

at  first  sight  between  an  Englishman,  an  Italian,  or 
a  Spaniard,  but  we  are  perfectly  able  to  ascribe  to 
them  certain  moral  and  intellectual  characteristics, 
which  are  the  very  fundamental  characteristics  that 
we  referred  to  above.  An  Englishman  or  a  Gascon, 
an  inhabitant  of  Normandy  or  Flanders,  corresponds 
to  a  type  of  which  we  have  a  perfectly  clear  idea  and 
of  which  we  can  easily  give  a  description.  Applied 
to  an  isolated  individual,  the  description  may  seem 
very  inadequate  and  sometimes  inexact ;  applied  to 
the  majority  of  the  individuals  of  one  of  these  races 
it  will  depict  them  perfectly.  The  unconscious  pro- 
cess by  which  we  arrive  at  an  idea  of  the  physical 
and  mental  type  of  a  people  is  absolutely  identical 
in  its  essence  with  the  method  by  which  a  naturalist 
classifies  species. 

This  identity  of  the  mental  constitution  of  the 
majority  of  the  individuals  of  a  race  is  due  to  very 
simple  physiological  reasons.  Each  individual  is  the 
product  not  merely  of  his  immediate  parents  but  also 
of  his  race,  that  is  of  the  entire  series  of  his  ascend- 
ants. A  learned  economist,  M.  Cheysson,  has  calcu- 
lated that  in  France,  supposing  there  to  be  three 
generations  in  a  century,  each  of  us  would  have  in 
his  veins  the  blood  of  at  least  twenty  millions  of  the 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  9 

people  living  in  the  year  1000.  "  In  consequence  all 
the  inhabitants  of  a  given  locality,  of  a  given  district, 
necessarily  possess  common  ancestors,  are  moulded 
of  the  same  clay,  bear  the  same  impress,  and  they 
are  all  brought  back  unceasingly  to  the  average  type 
by  this  long  and  heavy  chain,  of  which  they  are 
merely  the  last  links.  We  are  the  children  at  once 
of  our  parents  and  our  race.  Our  country  is  our 
second  mother  for  physiological  and  hereditary  as 
well  as  sentimental  reasons." 

If  it  be  wished  to  state  in  precise  language  the  in- 
fluences which  govern  the  individual  and  direct  his 
conduct,  they  may  be  said  to  be  of  three  kinds.  The 
first  and  certainly  the  most  important  is  the  influence 
of  ancestors  ;  the  second,  the  influence  of  the  imme- 
diate parents  ;  the  third,  commonly  supposed  to  be 
the  most  powerful,  but  nevertheless  the  weakest,  is  > 
the  influence  of  environment.  The  influence  of  en- 
vironment, including  in  its  scope  the  various  physical 
and  moral  influences  to  which  the  individual  is  sub- 
jected during  his  life,  and  particularly  during  his  r 
education,  produces  but  very  slight  variations.  The 
influences  of  environment  only  become  really  effective 
when  heredity  has  caused  their  action  to  be  continued 
in  the  same  direction  during  a  long  period. 


io        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

Do  what  he  may,  then,  the  individual  is  always  and 
above  all  the  representative  of  his  race.  The  totality 
of  the  ideas  and  sentiments  that  are,  as  it  were,  the 
birthright  of  all  the  individuals  of  a  given  country 
form  the  soul  of  the  race.  Invisible  in  its  essence, 
this  soul  is  very  visible  in  its  effects,  since  it  de- 
termines in  reality  the  entire  evolution  of  a 
people. 

A  race  may  be  compared  to  the  totality  of  the  cells 
that  constitute  a  living  being.  The  existence  of  these 
milliards  of  cells  is  very  short,  whereas  the  existence 
of  the  being  formed  by  their  union  is  relatively  very 
long ;  they  possess  at  once  their  own  personal  life 
and  a  collective  life,  that  of  the  being  of  which  they 
form  the  substance.  In  the  same  way  each  individual 
of  a  race  has  a  very  short  individual  life  and  a  very 
long  collective  life.  This  latter  life  is  that  of  the  race 
of  which  he  is  sprung,  which  he  helps  to  perpetuate, 
and  on  which  he  is  always  dependent. 

A  race  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  permanent  being  that 
is  independent  of  time.  This  permanent  being  is 
composed  of  the  long  succession  of  the  dead  who 
were  its  ancestors,  as  well  as  of  the  living  individuals 
who  constitute  it  at  a  given  moment.  To  understand 
the  true  signification  of  a  race,  it  must  be  considered 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          n 

with  regard  both  to  its  past  and  its  future.  The  dead, 
besides  being  infinitely  more  numerous  than  the 
living,  are  infinitely  more  powerful.  They  reign  over 
the  vast  domain  of  the  unconscious,  that  invisible 
domain  which  exerts  its  sway  over  all  the  manifesta- 
tions of  the  intelligence  and  of  character.  A  people 
is  guided  far  more  by  its  dead  than  by  its  living 
members.  It  is  by  its  dead,  and  by  its  dead  alone, 
that  a  race  is  founded.  Century  after  century  our 
departed  ancestors  have  fashioned  our  ideas  and 
sentiments,  and  in  consequence  all  the  motives  of  our 
conduct.  The  generations  that  have  passed  away  do 
not  bequeath  us  their  physical  constitution  merely; 
they  also  bequeath  us  their  thoughts.  The  dead  are 
the  only  undisputed  masters  of  the  living.  We  bear 
the  burden  of  their  mistakes,  we  reap  the  reward  of 
their  virtues. 

The  formation  of  the  mental  constitution  of  a  people 
does  not  demand,  as  does  the  creation  of  animal 
species,  those  geological  periods  whose  immense 
duration  defies  calculation.  Still,  the  time  it  demands 
is  considerable.  To  create  in  such  a  people  as  the 
French,  even  to  the  comparatively  slight  extent 
accomplished  as  yet,  the  community  of  sentiments 
and  thought  that  forms  its  soul,  more  than  ten  cen- 


12  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

turies  have  been  necessary.1  Perhaps  the  most 
important  result  of  the  French  Revolution  was  to 
hasten  this  formation  by  greatly  promoting  the 
breaking  up  of  the  minor  nationalities  :  Picards, 
Flemish,  Burgundians,  Gascons,  Bretons,  men  of 
Provence,  &c.,  into  which  France  was  formerly 
divided.  Doubtless  the  unification  is  far  from  being 
complete,  and  it  is  more  especially  because  we  are 
composed  of  too  varied  races,  and  in  consequence 
have  too  different  ideas  and  sentiments,  that  we  are 
the  victims  of  dissensions  unknown  to  more  homo- 
geneous peoples — to  the  English,  for  example.  In 

1  This  lapse  of  time,  long  as  it  may  seem  from  the  point  of  view  of 
history,  is  in  reality  comparatively  short,  since  it  only  represents  thirty 
generations.  The  reason  why  so  relatively  brief  an  interval  is  sufficient 
to  fix  certain  characteristics  is  that  when  a  cause  acts  for  some  length  or 
time  in  the  same  direction,  it  speedily  produces  very  considerable  effects. 
Mathematics  teach  us  that  when  a  cause  persistently  produces  the  same 
effect,  the  causes  increase  in  arithmetical  progression  (i,  2,  3,  4,  5,  &c. ), 
and  the  effects  in  geometrical  progession  (2,  4,  8,  16,  32,  &c.).  The 
causes  are  the  logarithms  of  the  effects.  In  the  famous  problem  of  the 
doubling  of  the  grains  of  wheat  on  the  squares  of  a  chessboard,  the 
successive  numbers  of  the  square  are  the  logarithms  of  the  number  of 
grains  of  wheat.  Similarly  in  the  case  of  money  invested  at  compound 
interest,  the  number  of  years  is  the  logarithm  of  the  accumulated  capital. 
It  is  for  reasons  of  this  order  that  the  majority  of  social  phenomena 
may  be  expressed  by  very  nearly  similar  geometrical  curves.  In  another 
work  I  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  these  curves  might  be  expressed 
analytically  by  the  equation  of  the  parabola  or  the  hyperbola.  My 
learned  friend,  M.  Cheysson,  is  of  opinion  that  they  are  better  repre- 
sented, as  a  rule,  by  an  exponential  equation. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  13 

England,  the  Saxon,  the  Norman,  and  the  Ancient 
Briton  have  ended  by  forming,  as  the  result  of  fusion, 
a  very  homogeneous  type,  and  everything  in  conse- 
quence is  homogeneous  in  the  domain  of  conduct. 
Thanks  to  this  fusion,  the  English  have  acquired  in 
a  high  degree  the  three  fundamental  bases  of  the  soul 
of  a  people :  common  sentiments,  common  interests, 
and  common  beliefs.  When  a  nation  has  reached 
this  stage,  there  is  an  instinctive  agreement  amongst 
all  its  members  on  all  great  questions,  and  it  ceases 
to  be  a  prey  to  serious  dissensions. 

This  community  of  sentiments,  ideas,  beliefs,  and 
interests,  created  by  slow,  hereditary  accumulations, 
gives  a  high  degree  of  identity  and  fixity  to  the 
mental  constitution  of  a  people.  It  was  the  cause 
of  the  greatness  of  Rome  in  ancient  times,  and 
at  the  present  day  it  is  the  source  of  the  greatness 
of  England.  The  moment  it  disappears,  peoples 
begin  to  break  up,  The  role  of  Rome  was  at  an 
end  when  it  ceased  to  possess  it. 

The  congeries  of  sentiments,  ideas,  traditions,  and 
beliefs  which  form  the  soul  of  a  collectivity  of  men 
has  always  existed  more  or  less  in  the  case  of  all 
peoples  and  at  all  ages,  but  its  progressive  extension 
has  been  slowly  accomplished.  Restricted  at  first 


T4        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

to  the  family  and  gradually  extended  to  the  village, 
the  city,  and  the  province,  the  collective  soul  has  only 
spread  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  a  country  in  com- 
paratively modern  times.  It  was  only  when  this  last 
result  had  been  achieved,  that  the  notion  of  a  native 
country,  as  we  understand  it  to-day,  came  into  exist- 
ence. The  notion  is  not  possible  until  the  national 
soul  is  formed.  The  Greeks  never  got  beyond  the 
notion  of  the  city,  and  their  cities  were  always  at 
war,  because  in  point  of  fact  they  were  always  very 
foreign  to  one  another.  For  two  thousand  years 
past  India  has  known  no  other  unity  than  the 
village,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  for  two  thousand 
years  the  country  has  always  been  subject  to  foreign 
rulers,  whose  ephemeral  empires  have  come  to  an 
end  as  easily  as  they  were  formed. 

Weak  though  it  be  from  the  point  of  view  of 
military  strength,  the  conception  of  the  city  as  the 
sole  native  country  has,  on  the  contrary,  always  been 
very  effective  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  develop- 
ment of  civilisation.  Though  less  spacious  than  the 
soul  of  the  native  country,  the  soul  of  the  city  has 
at  times  been  more  fruitful.  Athens  in  ancient  times, 
Florence  and  Venice  during  the  Middle  Ages,  show 
us  the  degree  of  civilisation  which  may  be  attained 
to  by  small  agglomerations  of  men. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  15 

When  small  cities  or  small  provinces  have  lived  an 
independent  life  for  a  considerable  length  of  time, 
they  end  by  possessing  so  stable  a  soul  that  its 
fusion  with  those  of  neighbouring  cities  and  pro- 
vinces, with  a  view  to  the  formation  of  a  national 
soul,  becomes  almost  impossible.  Such  a  fusion, 
even  if  it  be  capable  of  being  brought  about,  as 
happens  when  the  elements  brought  together  are  not 
too  dissimilar,  is  never  the  work  of  a  day,  but  only 
that  of  centuries.  To  achieve  such  a  work,  a  Riche- 
lieu or  a  Bismarck  is  necessary,  but  they  only  bring 
it  to  a  head,  when  it  has  been  long  in  elaboration. 
It  is  possible  indeed  for  a  country,  as  has  happened 
in  the  case  of  Italy,  to  arrive  suddenly,  as  the  result 
of  exceptional  circumstances,  at  forming  a  single 
State,  but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
it  thus  acquires  simultaneously  a  national  soul.  It 
is  clear  to  me  that  in  Italy  there  are  Piedmontese, 
Sicilians,  Venetians,  Romans,  etc.,  but  it  is  not  clear 
as  yet  that  there  are  Italians. 

At  the  present  day,  whatever  be  the  race  under 
consideration,  whether  it  be  homogeneous  or  not,  by 
the  mere  fact  that  it  is  civilised  and  for  a  long  while 
past  has  played  its  part  in  history,  it  must  always  be 
regarded  as  an  artificial  and  not  as  a  natural  race. 


16        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

Natural  races  are  scarcely  to  be  met  with  except 
among  savages.  It  is  only  among  savages  that  it 
is  possible  to  find  peoples  of  absolute  racial  purity. 
At  the  present  day  the  majority  of  civilised  races 
are  merely  historical  races. 

We  are  not  concerned  here  with  the  origin  of  races. 
That  they  have  been  formed  by  nature  or  by  history 
is  beyond  our  purpose.  What  interests  us  is  their 
characteristics  such  as  they  have  been  constituted 
by  a  long  past.  Kept  up  during  centuries  by  the 
same  conditions  of  existence  and  accumulated  by 
heredity,  these  characteristics  have  ended  by  ac- 
quiring a  high  degree  of  fixity  and  by  determining 
the  type  of  each  people. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  LIMITS   OF   THE   VARIABILITY  OF   THE 
CHARACTER   OF   RACES 

The  variability  of  the  character  of  races,  and  not  its  fixity,  constitutes 
the  apparent  rule — Reasons  for  this  appearance — Invariability  of 
the  fundamental  characteristics  and  variability  of  the  secondary 
characteristics — Analogies  between  the  psychological  characteristics 
and  the  irreducible  and  modifiable  characteristics  of  the  animal 
species — It  is  only  environment,  circumstances,  and  education  that 
influence  the  accessory  psychological  characteristics — The  possi- 
bilities of  character — Examples  furnished  by  the  different  periods — 
The  men  of  the  Terror — What  they  became  at  different  periods — 
How  national  characteristics  endure  in  spite  of  revolutions — 
Various  examples — Conclusion. 

IT  is  only  by  a  careful  study  of  the  evolution 
of  civilisations  that  the  fixity  of  the  mental  con- 
stitution of  races  is  brought  home  to  the  observer. 
At  first  sight  it  is  variability  and  not  fixity  that 
appears  to  be  the  general  rule.  The  history  of 
peoples  might  induce  the  belief  that  their  soul  under- 
goes on  occasion  very  rapid  and  very  far-reaching 
transformations.  Does  there  not  seem,  for  example, 

3  '7 


i8  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

to  be    a  very  considerable   difference   between    the 
character  of  an  Englishman  of  the  time  of  Cromwell 
and  that  of  a  modern  Englishman  ?     Does  not  the 
circumspect   and  subtle  Italian  of  the   present  day 
seem    a  very   different    being  from   the   fierce    and 
impulsive  Italian  described  in  the  Memoirs  of  Ben- 
venuto  Cellini?      Not   to   go   so   far   afield,  and    to 
confine  ourselves  to  France,  how  numerous  are  the 
apparent   changes  of  character  in  the   course   of  a 
few  centuries,  and  even  at  times  in  the   course   of 
a  few  years  !     What  historian  has  not  remarked  the 
difference  between  the  French  national  character  of 
the   seventeenth   and    eighteenth  centuries  ?   and    in 
modern  times,  can  anything  seem  more  distinct  than 
the  character  of  the  ferocious  Conventionalists  and 
that  of  the   docile   slaves  of  Napoleon  ?     And  yet 
they  were  the  same  men,  though   in   the  space  of 
a    few   years    they  seem  to    have  changed    entirely. 
To  elucidate  the  causes  of  these  changes,  we  will 
remind  the  student  in  the  first  place  that  a  psycho- 
logical species  is  formed,  as  is  an  anatomical  species, 
of  a  very  small  number  of  irreducible,  fundamental 
characteristics  around  which  are  grouped  accessory 
characteristics  which  are  modifiable  and  changeable. 
The  breeder  who  transforms  the  apparent  structure 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          19 

of  an  animal,  or  the  gardener  who  modifies  the  aspect 
of  a  plant  to  such  a  degree  that  it  is  unrecognisable 
to  the  unpractised  eye,  has  not  affected  to  the 
slightest  extent  the  fundamental  characteristics  of 
the  species  ;  all  they  have  done  has  been  to  influence 
the  accessory  characteristics.  In  spite  of  all  the 
artifices  employed,  the  fundamental  characteristics 
always  tend  to  reappear  with  each  new  generation. 

The  mental  constitution  possesses  fundamental 
characteristics  as  immutable  as  the  anatomical 
characteristics  of  animal  species,  but  it  also  possesses 
accessory  characteristics  that  are  easily  modified. 
It  is  these  latter  characteristics  that  may  easily  be 
changed  by  environment,  circumstances,  education 
and  various  other  factors. 

It  must  also  be  remembered,  and  the  point  is 
essential,  that  we  all  possess  in  our  mental  constitu-  / 
tion  certain  possibilities  of  character,  which  circum- 
stances do  not  always  provide  with  an  opportunity 
of  manifesting  themselves.  When  they  come  to  the 
front,  a  new  and  more  or  less  ephemeral  personality 
at  once  takes  shape.  It  is  in  this  way  that  at  times 
of  great  political  or  religious  crisis,  momentary 
changes  of  character  are  observed,  which  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  manners,  ideas,  conduct,  everything 


20  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

in  short,  had  undergone  a  change.  Everything  has 
indeed  changed,  as  happens  to  the  tranquil  surface 
of  a  lake  lashed  by  a  storm ;  but  it  is  rare  that  the 
change  is  lasting. 

It  is  in  consequence  of  these  possibilities  of 
character  put  in  operation  by  certain  exceptional 
events,  that  the  actors  in  great  religious  and  political 
crises  appear  to  us  to  be  made  of  superior  stuff  to 
ourselves,  to  be  a  sort  of  giants  of  whom  we  are  the 
degenerate  sons.  In  reality  they  were  men  like  our- 
selves, in  whom  circumstances  had  given  free  rein 
to  possibilities  of  character  possessed  by  all  of  us. 
Take,  for  example,  the  "  giants  of  the  Convention  " 
who  held  Europe  in  check,  and  sent  their  adversaries 
to  the  guillotine  for  a  mere  contradiction.  At  bottom 
they  were  respectable,  pacific  citizens  like  ourselves, 
who  in  ordinary  times  would  probably  have  led 
the  most  tranquil  and  retired  existence  in  their 
studies  or  behind  their  counters.  Extraordinary 
events  caused  the  vibration  of  certain  of  their  brain 
cells  which  under  usual  conditions  would  not  have 
been  called  into  activity,  and  they  developed  into 
those  colossal  figures,  whom  posterity  is  at  a  loss 
to  understand.  Born  a  hundred  years  later,  Robes- 
pierre would  doubtless  have  been  an  upright  magis- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  21 

trate  on  excellent  terms  with  the  local  priest  ; 
Fouquier-Tinville  a  magistrate  possessing,  perhaps 
in  rather  a  higher  degree  than  his  colleagues,  the 
harshness  and  supercilious  manners  of  his  profession, 
but  greatly  appreciated  for  his  zeal  in  bringing 
delinquents  to  book  ;  Saint-Just  would  have  made 
an  excellent  schoolmaster,  esteemed  by  his  chiefs 
and  very  proud  of  the  decoration  he  would  certainly 
have  ended  by  obtaining.  To  remove  all  doubt  as 
to  the  accuracy  of  these  previsions  it  is  sufficient 
to  note  what  Napoleon  accomplished  with  such  of 
the  ferocious  Terrorists  as  had  not  the  time  to  cut 
off  mutually  each  others'  heads.  The  majority  of 
them  became  staid  officials,  tax  collectors,  magistrates 
or  prefects.  The  waves  stirred  up  by  the  storm  of 
which  we  spoke  above  had  calmed  down,  and  the 
troubled  lake  had  recovered  its  tranquil  surface. 

Even  in  the  most  troubled  periods,  in  those  which 
produce  the  strangest  variations  of  personality,  it 
is  easy  to  trace  the  fundamental  characteristics 
of  the  race  beneath  the  new  developments.  Was 
there  much  difference  in  reality  between  the  cen- 
tralised, dictatorial  and  despotic  regime  of  our  strict 
Jacobins  and  the  centralised,  dictatorial  and  despotic 
regime  to  which  fifteen  centuries  of  monarchy  had 


22  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

accustomed  the  French  nation  ?  All  the  revolutions 
of  the  Latin  peoples  result  in  this  obstinately  re- 
curring regime,  in  this  incurable  need  of  being 
governed,  because  it  represents  a  sort  of  synthesis 
of  the  instincts  of  the  race.  It  was  not  solely  the 
glamour  attaching  to  his  victories  that  enabled 
Bonaparte  to  make  himself  master  of  France.  When 
he  transformed  the  republic  into  a  dictatorship,  the 
hereditary  instincts  of  the  race  manifested  themselves 
day  by  day  with  greater  intensity  ;  indeed,  in  the 
absence  of  an  officer  of  genius,  any  adventurer 
might  have  filled  his  part.  Fifty  years  later  the  heir 
to  his  name  had  only  to  show  himself  to  obtain  the 
votes  of  a  people  tired  of  liberty  and  eager  for 
servitude.  It  was  not  the  i8th  Brumaire  that 
established  the  fortunes  of  Napoleon,  but  the  soul 
of  his  race  which  he  was  about  to  trample  beneath 
his  iron  heel.1 

1  "At  his  first  gesture,"  writes  Taine,  "the  French  bowed  in 
obedience,  and  they  persisted  in  their  attitude,  as  if  it  were  their 
natural  condition  ;  the  humble,  the  soldiers,  and  the  peasants,  with 
animal  fidelity  ;  the  great,  the  dignitaries  and  functionaries,  with 
Byzantine  servility.  The  Republicans  offered  no  resistance ;  on  the 
contrary,  it  was  among  them  that  he  found  the  best  instruments  of  his 
reign,  his  Senators,  Deputies,  State  Councillors,  judges  and  officials 
of  every  rank.  Beneath  their  talk  of  liberty  and  equality,  he  had  been 
quick  to  divine  their  dictatorial  instincts,  their  need  of  commanding, 
of  surpassing  their  fellows,  and  even,  subsidiarily  and  in  addition,  their 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          23 


The  influence  exerted  on  men  by  environment 
appears  so  great,  because  it  operates  on  the  accessory 
and  transitory  elements,  or  on  those  possibilities  of 
character  of  which  we  have  been  speaking.  In 
reality,  the  changes  are  not  very  profound.  The 
mildest  man,  driven  by  hunger,  attains  to  a  degree 
of  ferocity  which  renders  him  capable  of  every  crime, 
and  even  leads  him  occasionally  to  devour  his  fellow 
man.  Will  it  be  said  on  this  account  that  his  habitual 
character  has  definitely  changed  ? 

If  the  conditions  of  civilisation  procure  a  minority 
extreme  wealth  and  develop  in  its  members  all  the 
vices  which  are  the  inevitable  consequence  of  luxury ; 
if  they  arouse  violent  desires  in  the  remainder  of  the 
population  without  supplying  the  means  of  satisfying 
them,  the  result  will  be  general  discontent  and  unrest, 
which  will  influence  conduct  and  provoke  upheavals 
of  every  kind,  but  amid  this  discontent  and  these 
upheavals  the  fundamental  characteristics  of  the  race 
will  always  show  themselves.  In  the  past,  the 
English-born  inhabitants  of  the  United  States,  when 

hungering  after  wealth  and  pleasure.  Between  the  delegate  of  the 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  and  the  Minister,  the  Prefect  or  the  sub- 
Prefect  of  the  Empire,  the  difference  is  slight.  The  man  is  the  same 
and  it  is  only  the  costume  that  is  altered :  the  carmagnole  has  been 
exchanged  for  an  embroidered  uniform. " 


24        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

engaged  in  civil  war,  displayed  the  same  indomitable 
energy  as  they  exhibit  to-day  in  founding  towns, 
universities,  and  manufactories.  The  national  charac- 
ter has  not  been  modified ;  it  is  merely  the  objects 
that  bring  it  into  play  that  have  changed. 

When  examining  in  succession  the  various  factors 
capable  of  influencing  the  mental  constitution  of 
peoples,  we  always  observe  that  their  influence  is 
exerted  on  the  accessory  and  transitory  sides  of 
character,  while  they  scarcely  affect  the  fundamental 
elements,  or  only  affect  them  as  the  result  of  very 
slow  hereditary  accumulations. 

We  do  not  conclude  from  what  precedes  that  the 
psychological  characteristics  of  peoples  are  invariable, 
but  only  that  they  possess,  like  the  anatomical 
characteristics,  a  high  degree  of  fixity.  It  is  on 
account  of  this  fixity  that  the  soul  of  races  changes 
so  slowly  during  the  course  of  ages. 


CHAPTER    III 

THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   HIERARCHY  OF   RACES 

Psychological  classification  is  based,  as  are  anatomical  classifications, 
on  the  determination  of  a  small  number  of  irreducible  and  funda- 
mental characteristics — Psychological  classification  of  the  human 
races — The  primitive  races — The  inferior  races — The  average 
races  —  The  superior  races  —  The  psychological  elements  the 
grouping  of  which  allows  of  this  classification — The  elements 
which  are  of  the  most  importance — Character — Morality — The 
intellectual  qualities  are  modifiable  by  education — The  qualities 
appertaining  to  character  are  irreducible  and  constitute  the 
unvarying  element  in  each  people — Their  role  in  history — Why 
it  is  impossible  for  different  races  to  understand  and  influence  one 
another — The  reasons  why  it  is  impossible  for  an  inferior  people 
to  adopt  a  superior  civilisation. 

T  ^7 HEN  the  grounds  are  examined,  in  a  work 
*  *  on  natural  history,  of  the  classification  of 
species,  it  is  at  once  observed  that  the  irreducible,  and 
in  consequence  the  fundamental  characteristics,  which 
allow  of  the  determination  of  each  species,  are  very 
few  in  number.  Their  enumeration  always  occupies 
but  a  few  lines. 


26  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

The  reason  is  that  the  naturalist  only  concerns 
himself  with  the  unvarying  characteristics,  and  pays 
no  heed  to  the  transitory  characteristics.  Moreover 
these  fundamental  characteristics  have  as  their 
inevitable  consequence  an  entire  series  of  other 
characteristics. 

The  case  is  the  same  with  the  psychological 
characteristics  of  races.  If  details  be  gone  into, 
innumerable  slight  divergencies  are  found  to  exist 
between  different  peoples  and  different  individuals. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  only  the  fundamental  charac- 
teristics be  considered,  they  are  seen  to  be  very  few 
in  number  for  each  people.  It  is  only  by  examples 
— we  shall  shortly  adduce  examples  that  are  highly 
characteristic — that  it  is  possible  to  show  clearly  the 
influence  of  this  small  number  of  fundamental 
characteristics  on  the  life  of  peoples. 

The  only  way  to  set  forth  the  bases  of  a  psycho- 
logical classification  of  races  being  to  study  in  detail 
the  psychology  of  the  different  peoples,  a  task  that 
would  demand  in-  itself  several  volumes,  we  shall 
confine  ourselves  to  indicating  their  main  lines. 

If  only  their  general  psychological  characteristics 
be  considered,  the  human  races  may  be  divided  into 
four  groups :  (i)  the  primitive  races  ;  (2)  the  inferior 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          27 

races ;  (3)  the  average  races ;  (4)  the  superior 
races, 

The  primitive  races  are  those  in  which  no  trace 
of  culture  is  met  with.  They  have  remained  in  that 
state  bordering  on  animality  which  was  traversed  by 
our  ancestors  of  the  age  of  stone  instruments.  The 
Fuegians  and  the  aboriginal  Australians  are  examples 
in  point. 

Above  the  primitive  races  are  found  the  inferior 
races,  represented  more  especially  by  the  negroes. 
They  are  capable  of  attaining  to  the  rudiments  of 
civilisation,  but  to  the  rudiments  only.  They  have 
never  been  able  to  get  beyond  quite  barbarian  forms 
of  civilisation,  even  when  chance  has  made  them  the 
heirs,  as  at  Saint  Domingo,  of  superior  civilisa- 
tions. 

Among  the  average  races,  we  shall  place  the 
Chinese,  the  Japanese,  the  Mongolians,  and  the 
Semitic  peoples.  In  the  case  of  the  Assyrians,  the 
Mongolians,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Arabs,  they  have 
created  high  types  of  civilisation,  which  only  the 
European  peoples  have  been  able  to  surpass. 

Only  the  Indo-European  peoples  can  be  classed 
among  the  superior  races.  Both  in  antiquity,  at  the 
epoch  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  in  modern 


28        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

times  they  alone  have  been  capable  of  great  inven- 
tions in  the  arts,  the  sciences,  and  industry.  It  is  to 
them  that  is  due  the  high  level  reached  by  civilisation 
at  the  present  day.  It  is  they  who  have  discovered 
steam  and  electricity.  The  least  developed  of  these 
superior  races,  the  Hindoos  in  particular,  have  risen 
to  a  level  in  the  arts,  letters,  and  philosophy  to  which 
the  Mongolians,  the  Chinese,  or  the  Semites  have 
never  been  able  to  attain. 

No  confusion  is  possible  between  the  four  great 
divisions  we  have  just  enumerated.  The  mental 
abyss  that  separates  them  is  evident.  It  is  only 
when  it  is  desired  to  subdivide  these  groups  that  the 
difficulties  begin.  An  Englishman,  a  Spaniard,  or  a 
Russian  belong  all  of  them  to  the  division  of  superior 
peoples,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  common  know- 
ledge that  the  differences  between  them  are  very 
great. 

To  determine  these  differences  with  precision,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  take  each  people  separately, 
and  to  describe  its  character.  This  is  the  course  we 
shall  shortly  follow  in  the  case  of  two  of  these  peoples 
in  order  to  give  an  application  of  the  method  and  to 
show  the  importance  of  its  consequences. 

For    the    moment,    we    can    only    indicate   very 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          29 

summarily  the  nature  of  the  principal  psychological 
elements  which  allow  of  the  differentiation  of  races. 

Among  the  primitive  and  inferior  races — and  to 
find  such  races  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  to  the  pure 
savages,  since  the  lowest  strata  of  the  European 
societies  are  homologous  with  the  primitive  men — 
a  greater  or  less  incapacity  to  reason  is  always  met 
with,  an  incapacity,  that  is,  to  associate  in  the  brain, 
with  a  view  to  compare  them  and  to  perceiving  their 
analogies  and  differences,  the  ideas  produced  by  past 
sensations  or  the  words  that  are  their  signs,  and  the 
ideas  produced  by  present  sensations.  There  results 
from  this  incapacity  to  reason  a  great  credulity  and  a 
complete  absence  of  the  critical  spirit  In  the  case  of 
the  superior  being,  on  the  contrary,  the  capacity  of 
associating  ideas,  and  of  drawing  conclusions  from 
their  association  is  very  great,  while  the  critical  spirit 
and  precision  are  highly  developed. 

The  inferior  races  further  display  but  an  in- 
finitesimal power  of  attention  and  reflection  ;  they 
possess  the  spirit  of  imitation  in  a  high  degree,  the 
habit  of  drawing  inaccurate  general  conditions  from 
particular  cases,  a  feeble  capacity  for  observation  and 
for  deriving  useful  results  from  their  observations,  an 
extreme  mobility  of  character  and  a  very  notable  lack 


30  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

of  foresight.  The  instinct  of  the  moment  is  their 
only  guide.  Like  Esau — the  type  of  the  primitive 
being — they  are  inclined  to  sell  their  birthright  for  a 
mess  of  pottage.  When  man  is  capable  of  weighing 
his  future  against  his  immediate  interest,  of  giving 
himself  a  goal  and  pursuing  it  with  perseverance,  he 
has  realised  a  considerable  progress. 

The  incapacity  to  foresee  the  distant  consequences 
of  acts  and  the  tendency  to  be  guided  solely  by  the 
/  instinct  of  the  moment  condemns  the  individual  as  well 
as  the  race  to  remain  for  ever  in  a  very  inferior  state. 
It  is  only  in  proportion  as  they  are  able  to  dominate 
their  instincts,  in  proportion,  that  is,  as  they  acquire 
will  power  and  in  consequence  empire  over  them- 
selves, that  peoples  can  understand  the  importance  of 
discipline,  the  necessity  of  sacrificing  themselves  to 
an  ideal  and  of  raising  themselves  to  a  civilised  state. 
Were  it  required  to  measure  by  a  single  standard  the 
social  level  of  peoples  in  history,  I  should  be  disposed 
to  take  as  standard  the  degree  of  their  aptitude  for 
dominating  their  reflex  impulses.  The  Romans  in 
antiquity,  the  Anglo-Americans  in  modern  times, 
represent  the  peoples  who  have  possessed  this  quality 
in  the  highest  measure.  It  has  largely  contributed  to 
assure  their  greatness. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  31 

It  is  by  their  general  grouping  and  their  respective 
development  that  the  various  psychological  elements 
just  enumerated  form  the  mental  constitutions  which 
allow  of  the  classification  of  individuals  and  races. 

Certain  of  these  psychological  elements  appertain 
to  character,  and  others  to  the  intelligence. 

The  superior  races  are  distinguished  from  the 
inferior  races  by  their  character  as  well  as  by  their 
intelligence,  but  it  is  more  especially  by  their 
character  that  the  superior  races  are  distinguished 
from  one  another.  This  point  has  considerable 
social  importance,  and  it  deserves  to  be  clearly 
established. 

Character  is  formed  by  the  combination,  in  varying 
proportions,  of  the  different  elements  which  psycho- 
logists are  accustomed  at  the  present  day  to  designate 
by  the  name  of  sentiments.  Among  the  sentiments 
which  play  the  most  important  part  must  more 
especially  be  noted  perseverance,  energy,  and  the 
power  of  self-control,  faculties  more  or  less  dependent 
on  the  will.  We  would  also  mention  morality  among 
the  fundamental  elements  of  character,  although  it  is 
the  synthesis  of  somewhat  complex  sentiments.  By| 
morality  we  mean  hereditary  respect  for  the  rules  on 
which  the  existence  of  a  society  is  based.  To  possess 


32       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

morality  means,  for  a  people,  to  have  certain  fixed 
rules  of  conduct  and  not  to  depart  from  them.  As 
these  rules  vary  with  time  and  place,  morality 
appears  in  consequence  to  be  a  very  variable  matter, 
and  it  is  so  in  fact ;  but  for  a  given  people,  at  a  given 
moment,  it  ought  to  be  quite  invariable.  The  off- 
spring of  character,  and  in  nowise  of  the  intelligence, 
it  is  not  solidly  constituted  until  it  has  become 
hereditary,  and,  in  consequence,  unconscious.  In  a 
general  way  the  greatness  of  peoples  depends  in  a 
large  measure  on  the  level  of  their  morality. 

The  intellectual  qualities  are  susceptible  of  being 
slightly  modified  by  education  ;  those  of  character 
almost  wholly  escape  its  influence.  When  education 
does  affect  them,  it  is  only  in  the  case  of  neutral 
natures,  whose  will  is  almost  non-existent,  and  who 
are  ready  in  consequence  to  follow  whatever  impulse 
may  be  given  them.  These  neutral  natures  are  met 
with  in  individuals,  but  very  rarely  in  an  entire 
people,  or,  should  they  be  thus  observed,  it  is  only  in 
times  of  extreme  decadence. 

The  discoveries  of  the  intelligence  are  easily 
transmitted  from  one  people  to  another.  The 
transmission  of  the  qualities  appertaining  to  character 
is  impossible.  They  are  the  irreducible  fundamental 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON   THEIR  EVOLUTION          33 

ments  which  allow  of  the  differentiation  of  the  ** 
ntal  constitutions  of  the  superior  peoples.  The 
scoveries  due  to  the  intelligence  are  the  common 
patrimony  of  humanity ;  qualities  or  defects  of 
character  constitute  the  exclusive  patrimony  of  each 
people,  they  are  the  firm  rock  which  the  waters  must 

»h  day  by  day  for  centuries  before  they  can  even 
r   away    its   external   asperities.      They   are   the    *• 
equivalent  of  the  irreducible  element  of  the  species, 
of  the  fins  of  fish,  of  the  beak  of  the  bird,  of  the  tooth 
of  the  carnivorous  animal. 

The  character  of  a  people  and  not  its  intelligence  ^ 
determines  its  historical  evolution,  and  governs  its 
destiny.  It  is  always  to  be  met  with  behind  the 
apparent  fantasies  of  that  most  powerless  chance, 
that  most  fictitious  Providence,  that  very  real  Fate 
which,  according  to  varying  beliefs,  guides  the  actions 
of  men. 

The  influence  of  character  is  sovereign  in  the  life 
of  peoples,  whereas  that  of  the  intelligence  is  in  truth 
very  feeble.  The  Romans  of  the  decadence  possessed 
intelligence  far  more  refined  than  that  of  their 
rude  ancestors,  but  they  had  lost  the  qualities  of 
character  of  the  latter  ;  the  perseverance,  the  energy, 
the  invincible  tenacity,  the  capacity  to  sacrifice  them- 

4 


34       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

selves  to  an  ideal,  the  inviolable  respect  for  the  laws 
which  had  made  the  greatness  of  their  forefathers. 
It  is  due  to  their  character  that  sixty  thousand  English 
are  able  to  maintain  beneath  their  yoke  two  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  of  Hindoos,  many  of  whom  are  at 
least  their  equals  in  intelligence,  while  a  few  surpass 
them  immensely  as  regards  their  artistic  taste  and  the 
depth  of  their  philosophic  views.  It  is  in  consequence 
of  their  character  that  they  are  the  masters  of  the 
most  gigantic  colonial  empire  known  to  history.  It 
is  character  and  not  intelligence  that  goes  to  the 
founding  of  societies,  religions,  and  empires.  Character 
it  is  that  enables  peoples  to  feel  and  act.  They  have 
never  derived  much  advantage  from  too  great  a 
desire  to  reason  and  think.1 

1  The  extreme  weakness  and  slight  practical  interest  of  the  works  of 
professional  psychologists  is  more  especially  to  be  ascribed  to  the  fact 
that  they  have  confined  themselves  almost  exclusively  to  the  study  of 
the  intelligence,  and  have  almost  entirely  neglected  that  of  charucter. 
M.  Paulhan  in  his  interesting  Essai  sur  les  caracteres •,  and  M.  Ribot 
in  a  few  passages,  unfortunately  only  too  short,  are  almost  the  only 
psychologists  I  can  recall  who  have  pointed  out  the  importance  of 
character,  and  noted  that  it  forms  the  true  basis  of  the  mental  con- 
stitution. "The  intelligence,"  the  learned  professor  of  the  College 
of  France  rightly  declares,  "is  only  an  accessory  form  of  the  mental 
evolution.  The  fundamental  type  is  character,  which  the  intelligence 
rather  tends  to  destroy  when  it  is  too  developed." 

It  is  to  the  study  of  character  that  attention  must  be  directed,  as  I  am 
attempting  to  show  in  these  pages,  when  it  is  desired  to  describe  the 
comparative  psychology  of  peoples.  It  would  be  difficult  to  understand 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          35 

It  is  the  mental  constitution  of  races  that  determines 
their  conception  of  the  world  and  of  life,  and,  in  con- 
sequence, their  conduct.  We  shall  shortly  support 
this  statement  by  important  examples.  Impressed  in 
a  certain  manner  by  external  things,  the  individual 
feels,  thinks,  and  acts  in  a  very  different  manner  from 
that  in  which  will  feel,  think,  and  act  those  who 
possess  a  different  mental  constitution.  The  con- 
sequence is  that  it  is  impossible  that  mental 
constitutions,  constructed  as  they  are  on  very  varied 
lines,  should  arrive  at  mutual  comprehension.  The 
century-old  conflicts  of  races  are  the  result  more 
particularly  of  the  incompatibility  of  their  respective 
characters.  It  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  any  under- 
standing of  history  unless  it  be  continually  borne  in 
mind  that  different  races  cannot  feel,  think,  or  act  in 
the  same  manner,  and  that,  in  consequence,  they 
cannot  comprehend  one  another.  Doubtless  the 
different  peoples  have  in  their  languages  common 

that  a  science  so  important — for  history  and  politics  are  its  derivations 
— should  never  have  been  made  the  object  of  study,  were  it  not  for  the 
knowledge  that  it  can  be  acquired  neither  in  laboratories  nor  in  books, 
but  only  in  the  course  of  long  travel.  There  is  no  indication  moreover 
that  it  is  on  the  eve  of  being  taken  up  by  the  professional  psychologists, 
who  at  the  present  day  are  more  and  more  abandoning  what  used  to  be 
their  domain,  and  confining  themselves  to  anatomical  and  psychological 
researches. 


36       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

words  which  they  imagine  are  synonymous,  but  these 
common  words  arouse  entirely  dissimilar  sensations, 
ideas,  and  modes  of  thought  in  those  who  hear  them 
uttered.  It  is  necessary  to  have  lived  among  peoples 
whose  mental  constitution  differs  to  a  sensible  degree 
from  our  own,  even  though  frequenting  amongst  them 
only  such  individuals  as  speak  our  language  and 
have  received  our  education,  to  appreciate  the  depth 
of  the  gulf  that  separates  the  thought  of  the  various 
peoples.  It  is  possible  to  obtain  some  idea  of  this 
phenomenon,  without  having  recourse  to  extensive 
travel,  by  observing  the  great  mental  separation  that 
exists  between  the  civilised  man  and  woman,  even 
when  the  latter  is  highly  educated.  The  man  and 
the  woman  may  have  common  interests  and  senti- 
ments, but  never  like  chains  of  thought.  They  might 
converse  with  one  another  for  centuries  without 
understanding  one  another,  because  they  are  con- 
structed on  lines  too  different  to  allow  of  their  being 
impressed  in  the  same  manner  by  external  things. 
The  difference  in  their  logical  faculties  is  alone 
sufficient  to  create  between  them  an  insuperable 
gulf. 

This  abyss  between  the  mental  constitution  of  the 
different  races  explains  how  it  is  that  the  superior 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  37 

peoples  have  never  been  able  to  impose  their  civilisa- 
tion on  inferior  peoples.  The  idea,  still  so  wide- 
spread, that  education  can  achieve  this  result,  is  one 
of  the  most  baneful  illusions  that  the  theoreticians  of 
pure  reason  have  ever  brought  into  existence.  Thanks 
to  the  memory  possessed  by  the  most  inferior  beings 
— a  privilege  in  nowise  confined  to  man — it  is  doubt- 
less possible  for  education  to  impart  to  an  individual 
somewhat  low  down  in  the  human  scale  the  totality 
of  the  notions  possessed  by  a  European.  A  negro  or 
a  Japanese  may  easily  take  a  university  degree  or 
become  a  lawyer ;  the  sort  of  varnish  he  thus  acquires 
is  however  quite  superficial,  and  has  no  influence  on 
his  mental  constitution.  What  no  education  can 
give  him,  because  they  are  created  by  heredity  alone, 
are  the  forms  of  thought,  the  logic,  and  above  all  the 
character  of  the  Western  man.  Our  negro  or  our 
Japanese  may  accumulate  all  possible  certificates 
without  ever  attaining  to  the  level  of  the  average 
European.  It  is  easy  to  give  him  in  ten  years  the 
culture  of  a  well-educated  Englishman.  To  make  a 
real  Englishman  of  him,  that  is  to  say  a  man  acting 
as  an  Englishman  would  act  in  the  different  circum- 
stances of  life,  a  thousand  years  would  scarcely  be 
sufficient.  It  is  only  in  appearance  that  a  people 


38       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

suddenly  transforms  its  language,  its  constitution,  its 
beliefs  or  its  arts.  For  such  changes  to  be  really 
accomplished,  it  would  be  necessary  that  it  should  be 
able  to  transform  its  soul. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    PROGRESSIVE    DIFFERENTIATION    OF    INDI- 
VIDUALS AND  RACES 

The  inequality  between  the  different  individuals  of  a  race  is  greater  in 
proportion  to  the  superiority  of  the  race — Mental  equality  of  all  the 
individuals  of  inferior  races — To  appreciate  the  differences  that 
separate  races,  the  superior  individuals  of  each  people  and  not  its 
average  representatives  must  be  compared — The  progress  of  civilisa- 

Ition  tends  towards  a  greater  and  greater  differentiation  of  indi- 
viduals and  races — Consequences  of  this  differentiation — The  psy- 
chological reasons  which  prevent  its  becoming  too  considerable — 
The  individuals  of  the  superior  races  are  highly  differentiated  as 
regards  their  intelligence,  and  very  slightly  so  as  regards  their  cha- 
racter— How  heredity  constantly  tends  to  reduce  individual  superi- 
orities to  the  average  type  of  the  race — Anatomical  observations 
confirming  the  progressive  psychological  differentiation  of  races, 
individuals,  and  sexes. 

THE  superior  races  are  not  distinguished  from 
the  inferior  races  solely  by  their  psychologica 
and  anatomical  characteristics.  A  further  distinction 
is  supplied  by  the  diversity  of  the  elements  of  which 
they  are  composed.  All  the  individuals  of  the  inferior 
races,  even  as  regards  those  of  different  sex,  are  on 

39 


40  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

sensibly  the  same  mental  level.  They  all  of  them 
resemble  one  another,  and  they  are  thus  a  perfect  ex- 
emplification of  the  equality  dreamed  of  by  our  modern 
socialists.  In  the  case  of  the  superior  races,  on  the 
contrary,  the  intellectual  inequality  of  the  individuals 
and  the  sexes  is  the  law. 

For  this  reason,  in  order  to  appreciate  the  differences 
that  separate  peoples,  their  superior  representatives— 
when  they  possess  such — and  not  their  inferior  must 
be  compared.  Hindoos,  Chinese,  and  Europeans  are 
but  slightly  differentiated  intellectually  so  far  as  their 
average  representatives  are  concerned.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  their  superior  representatives  are  compared 
their  differentiation  is  found  to  be  considerable. 

With  the  progress  of  civilisation,  not  only  races,  but 
also  the  individuals  of  each  race — those  at  least  of  the 
superior  races — tend  to  become  more  and  more  diffe- 
rentiated. The  result  of  modern  civilisation,  clashing 
with  our  dreams  of  equality,  is  not  to  render  men 
more  and  more  equal  intellectually,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, more  and  more  different. 

One  of  the  principal  consequences  of  civilisation  is, 
on  the  one  hand,  to  differentiate  races  by  the  daily 
increasing  intellectual  exertion  it  demands  of  peoples 
who  have  attained  to  a  high  degree  of  culture,  and 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  41 

on  the  other  to  widen  the  distinctions  between  the 
various  grades  of  which  each  civilised  people  is 
composed. 

The  conditions  of  modern  industrial  evolution 
condemn  the  inferior  classes  of  civilised  peoples  to  a 
highly  specialised  labour  which,  far  from  increasing 
their  intelligence,  merely  tends  to  lessen  it.  A 
hundred  years  ago,  a  workman  was  a  veritable  artist 
capable  of  executing  all  the  details  of  any  piece  of 
mechanism — of  a  watch  for  example.  To-day,  he  is 
a  mere  toiler,  who  never  produces  more  than  one 
speciality,  who  spends  his  life  boring  the  same  holes, 
polishing  the  same  portion  of  an  article,  driving  the 
same  machine.  The  result  is  that  the  atrophy  of  his 
intelligence  is  soon  complete.  The  manufacturer  or 
the  engineer  who  directs  the  workman  is  obliged,  on 
the  contrary,  owing  to  the  pressure  of  discoveries  and 
competition,  to  possess  far  more  numerous  acquire- 
ments and  much  more  enterprise  and  invention  than 
his  predecessor  of  a  century  back.  His  brain  is  con- 
stantly exercised,  and,  undergoing  the  law  which 
applies  to  all  organs  in  such  a  case,  becomes  more 
and  more  developed. 

Tocqueville  had  already  pointed  out  this  progressive 
differentiation  of  the  social  grades  at  a  period  when 


42  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

industry  was  far  from  having  attained  to  the  degree 
of  development  it  has  reached  to-day.  "  In  propor- 
tion as  the  principle  of  the  division  of  labour  receives 
more  thorough  application,  the  workman  becomes 
weaker,  of  narrower  intelligence,  and  more  dependent, 
Art  progresses,  the  artisan  falls  back.  Every  day  the 
difference  between  the  employer  and  the  workman 
increases." 

At  the  present  day,  a  superior  people  may  be  con- 
sidered, from  the  intellectual  point  of  view,  to  consti- 
tute a  sort  of  pyramid  of  steps,  the  majority  of  which 
are  formed  by  the  masses  of  the  population,  the  upper 
steps  by  the  intelligent  classes,1  and  the  point  of  the 
pyramid  by  a  very  small  elite  of  men  of  science,  inven- 
tors, artists,  and  writers,  an  exceedingly  restricted 
group  as  compared  with  the  rest  of  the  population,  but 

1  I  say  intelligent  without  adding  cultured.  It  is  a  characteristic 
error  of  the  Latin  peoples  to  believe  that  intelligence  and  culture  go 
together.  Culture  merely  implies  the  possession  of  a  certain  amount  of 
memory,  but  to  acquire  it  no  judgment,  reflection,  initiative  or  invention 
are  necessary.  Persons  of  very  restricted  intelligence  are  often  met 
with  among  those  who  have  passed  examinations,  while  it  is  quite  as 
common  to  find  persons  of  a  very  slight  degree  of  culture  who  are  highly 
intelligent.  The  upper  portion  of  our  pyramid  would  be  formed  then 
by  elements  taken  from  all  classes.  All  the  professions  contain  a  very 
small  number  of  notable  intelligences.  Still  it  appears  probable,  in 
virtue  of  the  laws  of  heredity,  that  what  are  known  as  the  superior  social 
classes  contain  the  greater  number,  and  it  is  doubtless  herein  that  their 
superiority  lies. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  43 


the  only  group  that  determines  the  rank  of  a  country 
in  the  intellectual  scale  of  civilisation.  It  would  suffice 
for  it  to  disappear  for  all  that  constitutes  the  glory  of 
a  nation  to  disappear  at  the  same  time.  "Were 
France,  as  Saint-Simon  has  rightly  observed,  to  lose 
suddenly  its  fifty  leading  men  of  science,  its  fifty 
leading  artists,  its  fifty  leading  manufacturers,  its  fifty 
leading  agriculturists,  the  nation  would  become  a 
body  without  a  soul,  it  would  be  decapitated.  If  on 
the  contrary  it  were  to  lose  all  its  officials,  the  French 
would  grieve  at  the  loss  because  they  are  soft- 
hearted, but  the  country  would  sustain  very  little 
harm." 

With  the  progress  of  civilisation,  the  differentiation 
between  the  extreme  grades  of  a  population  proceeds 
with  great  rapidity ;  it  even  tends,  on  occasion,  to 
increase  in  what  mathematicians  call  geometrical 
progression.  It  would  suffice  in  consequence,  if 
certain  effects  of  heredity  did  not  intervene,  to 
allow  time  to  act  to  see  the  superior  grades  of  a 
population  separated  intellectually  from  the  inferior 
grades  by  a  distance  as  great  as  that  which  separates 
the  white  man  from  the  negro,  or  even  the  negro  from 
the  monkey. 

For  several  reasons,  however,  this  intellectual  differ- 


44  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

entiation  of  the  social  grades,  considerable  though  it 
becomes,  is  not  accomplished  with  the  rapidity  that 
might  be  possible  theoretically.  In  the  first  place,  the 
differentiation  is  almost  confined  to  the  intelligence, 
and  affects  the  character  to  a  very  slight  extent ;  and 
we  know  that  it  is  the  character  and  not  the  intelli- 
gence that  plays  the  fundamental  part  in  the  life  of 
peoples.  In  the  second  place,  the  masses  are  tending 
at  the  present  day,  in  virtue  of  their  organisation  and 
discipline,  to  become  all-powerful.  Their  hatred  of 
intellectual  superiority  being  evident,  it  is  probable 
that  every  intellectual  aristocracy  is  destined  to  be 
violently  destroyed  by  periodic  revolutions,  in  propor- 
tion as  the  masses  become  organised,  and  just  as  the 
ancient  nobility  was  destroyed  a  century  ago.  When 
Socialism  shall  have  become  master  in  Europe,  its 
only  chance  of  enduring  will  be  to  exterminate  all 
the  individuals  without  exception  endowed  with  a 
superiority  capable  of  raising  them,  however  slightly, 
above  the  most  humble  level. 

The  two  causes  I  have  just  set  forth  are  of  an  arti- 
ficial order,  since  they  are  the  result  of  conditions  of 
civilisation  that  may  vary.  But  there  is  a  further  and 
far  more  important  cause — it  is  an  irresistible  natural 
law — which  will  always  prevent  the  elite  of  a  nation, 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          45 

not  from  becoming  intellectually  differentiated  from 
the  inferior  grades,  but  from  becoming  so  differenti- 
ated too  rapidly.  The  present  conditions  of  civilisa- 
tion, which  tend  more  and  more  to  differentiate  men 
of  the  same  race,  are  confronted  by  the  powerful  laws 
of  heredity  which  tend  to  bring  about  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  individuals  who  surpass  the  average  in 
too  marked  a  manner,  or  at  least  to  bring  them  down 
to  this  average. 

Observations  already  old,  recorded  by  the  authors 
of  investigations  into  heredity,  have  proved  that  the 
descendants  of  families  distinguished  by  their  intelli- 
gence are  subject  sooner  or  later — and  most  usually 
at  an  early  date — to  a  process  of  degeneration  which 
tends  to  extinguish  them  entirely. 

Great  intellectual  superiority  seems,  then,  to  carry 
with  it  the  penalty  that  those  who  possess  it  leave 
behind  them  degenerate  offspring.  In  reality  the 
point  of  the  social  pyramid  of  which  I  spoke  above 
can  only  subsist  on  the  condition  that  it  assimilates 
elements  from  below.  If  all  the  individuals  com- 
posing this  elite  were  to  be  relegated  to  an  isolated 
island,  their  inter-marriages  would  result  in  the 
formation  of  a  race  displaying  a  variety  of  degene- 
rate symptoms  and  destined  in  consequence  to  dis- 


46  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

appear  speedily.  Great  intellectual  superiorities  may 
be  compared  to  the  botanical  monstrosities  created 
by  the  artifice  of  a  gardener.  Left  to  themselves 
they  die  off  or  return  to  the  average  type  of  the 
species,  for  the  species  is  all  powerful  since  it  repre- 
sents the  long  series  of  ancestors, 

Attentive  study  of  the  different  peoples  shows 
that  while  the  individuals  of  a  given  race  may  be 
immensely  differentiated  as  regards  the  intelligence, 
they  are  but  slightly  differentiated  as  regards  the 
character,  that  unalterable  rock  of  which  I  have 
already  shown  the  permanence  throughout  the  ages. 
In  studying  a  race  it  should  be  considered,  in  conse- 
quence, from  two  very  different  points  of  view.  From 
the  intellectual  point  of  view  its  value  depends  on  a 
small  elite  to  which  is  due  the  scientific,  literary,  and 
industrial  progress  of  a  civilisation.  From  the  point 
of  view  of  character,  acquaintance  with  the  average  is 
alone  important.  The  strength  of  peoples  is  always 
dependent  on  the  level  of  this  average.  Peoples  may 
do  at  a  pinch  without  an  intellectual  Mite,  but  not 
without  a  certain  level  of  character.  We  shall  shortly 
prove  this  statement. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  while  the  individuals  of  a  race 
become  more  and  more  differentiated  intellectually  as 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          47 

time  goes  on,  they  always  tend,  as  far  as  character  is 
concerned,  to  oscillate  round  the  average  type  of  the 
race.  It  is  to  this  average  type,  which  progresses 
very  slowly,  that  the  great  majority  of  the  members 
of  a  nation  belong.  Around  this  fundamental  kernel 
is  found — in  the  case  at  least  of  the  superior  peoples 
— a  thin  layer  of  eminent  minds,  whose  action  is  of 
capital  importance  as  regards  civilisation,  but  is  with- 
out importance  as  regards  the  race.  Incessantly 
being  destroyed,  it  is  incessantly  being  renewed  at 
the  expense  of  the  average  grades,  which,  for  their 
part,  vary  but  very  slowly,  since  the  slightest  varia- 
tions, in  order  to  become  durable,  must  be  accumu- 
lated in  the  same  direction  by  heredity  during  several 
centuries. 

It  was  several  years  ago  that  I  arrived,  basing  my 
conclusions  on  researches  of  a  purely  anatomical 
order,  at  the  idea  just  enunciated  touching  the  differ- 
entiation of  individuals  and  races,  and  to  justify  which 
I  have  now  invoked  none  but  psychological  reasons. 
As  the  two  kinds  of  observation  lead  to  the  same 
results,  I  may  be  allowed  to  recall  some  of  the  con- 
clusions of  my  earlier  investigations.  They  are  based 
on  measurements  executed  on  several  thousands  of 
skulls,  ancient  and  modern,  belonging  to  different 


48        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

races.      I    proceed   to  give  the  more  essential  pas- 
sages : 

The  volume  of  the  skull  bears  a  close  relation  to  the  intelligence, 
when,  leaving  individual  cases  out  of  consideration,  series  are  dealt 
with.  It  is  then  found  that  what  distinguishes  inferior  from  superior 
races  is  not  the  slight  variations  in  the  average  capacity  of  their  skulls, 
but  this  essential  fact  that  the  superior  race  contains  a  certain  number 
of  individuals  whose  brain  is  highly  developed,  whereas  the  inferior 
race  contains  no  such  individuals.  Races  differ,  in  consequence,  not  in 
respect  to  the  masses  that  constitute  them,  but  in  respect  to  the  small 
number  of  individuals  who  stand  out  from  the  crowd.  The  average 
difference  between  the  skull  in  the  case  of  two  peoples — except  when 
quite  inferior  races  are  under  consideration — is  never  very  considerable. 

When  the  skulls  are  compared  of  the  various  human  races,  belonging 
to  the  past  and  present,  it  is  found  that  the  races  in  which  the  volume 
of  the  skull  presents  the  greatest  individual  variations  are  the  most 
highly  civilised  races  ;  that  in  proportion  as  a  race  grows  civilised,  the 
skulls  of  the  individuals  composing  it  become  more  and  more  differenti- 
ated ;  a  fact  which  leads  to  the  result  that  civilisation  conduces  not  to 
intellectual  equality,  but  to  an  inequality  that  is  always  growing  more 
pronounced.  Anatomical  and  physiological  equality  only  exist  in  the 
case  of  individuals  of  quite  inferior  races.  The  differences  between  the 
members  of  a  tribe  of  savages,  all  of  whom  follow  the  same  occupation, 
are  perforce  of  the  slightest.  Between  the  peasant  whose  vocabulary 
consists  of  some  three  hundred  words,  and  the  man  of  learning  who  is 
familiar  with  a  hundred  thousand  words  and  with  the  ideas  that  corre- 
spond to  them,  the  difference  is,  on  the  contrary,  enormous. 

I  should  add  to  what  precedes  that  the  differentiation  of  individuals 
brought  about  by  the  development  of  civilisation  is  also  apparent  in  the 
case  of  the  sexes.  Among  inferior  peoples  or  the  inferior  classes  of 
superior  peoples  the  man  and  the  woman  are  intellectually  on  much  the 
same  level.  On  the  other  hand,  in  proportion  as  peoples  grow  civilised 
the  difference  between  the  sexes  is  accentuated. 

The  volume  ot  the  male  and  female  skull,  even  when  the  subjects 
compared,  as  in  my  investigations,  are  strictly  of  the  same  age,  height, 
and  weight,  presents  differences  that  increase  rapidly  with  the  degree  of 
civilisation.  Very  slight  in  the  case  of  the  inferior  races,  these  differ- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  49 

ences  become  immense  in  the  case  of  the  superior  races.  In  these 
superior  races  the  feminine  skulls  are  often  scarcely  more  developed 
than  those  of  the  women  of  very  inferior  races.  Whereas  the  average 
volume  of  the  skulls  of  male  Parisians  is  such  as  to  range  them  among 
the  largest  known  skulls,  the  average  of  the  skulls  of  female  Parisians 
classes  them  among  the  smallest  skulls  with  which  we  are  acquainted, 
almost  on  a  level  with  the  skulls  of  Chinese  women,  and  scarcely  above 
the  feminine  skulls  of  New  Caledonia.1 


1  Dr.  Gustave  le  Bon,  Recherches  anatomiqius  et  mathematiqties  sur 
les  variations  de  volume  dtt  cerveau  et  sur  leurs  relations  avec  V intelli- 
gence :  8vo,  1879  (Memoir  crowned  by  the  Academy  of  Sciences  and 
by  the  Society  of  Anthropology). 


CHAPTER     V 

FORMATION    OF   THE   HISTORICAL   RACES 

How  historical  races  are  formed — Conditions  which  allow  of  different 
races  combining  to  form  a  single  race — Influence  of  the  number  of 
the  individuals  involved  in  the  process,  of  the  dissimilarity  of  their 
characters,  of  the  environments,  etc. — Results  of  cross-breeding — 
Causes  of  the  great  inferiority  of  half-breeds — Mobility  of  the  new 
psychological  characteristics  created  by  cross-breeding — How  these 
characteristics  come  to  be  fixed — The  critical  periods  of  history — 
Cross-breeding  constitutes  an  essential  factor  in  the  formation  of 
new  races,  and  at  the  same  time  a  powerful  factor  in  the  dissolution 
of  civilisations — Importance  of  the  regime  of  castes — Influence  of 
environment — Environment  can  only  exert  its  influence  on  new 
races  in  process  of  formation,  and  on  races  whose  ancestral 
characteristics  are  giving  way  before  the  action  of  cross-breeding 
— Environment  is  without  influence  on  old  races — Various  examples 
— The  majority  of  the  historical  races  of  Europe  are  still  in  process 
of  formation — Political  and  social  consequences — Why  the  period 
of  formation  of  historical  races  will  soon  be  over. 

WE  have  already  remarked  that  genuine  races, 
in    the    scientific    sense    of  the   word,   are 
scarcely  to  be  met  with  among  civilised  peoples,  but 
only  historical  races,  by  which  is  meant  races  created 

by  the  chances  of  conquest,  immigration,  politics,  etc., 

50 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  51 

% 

and  formed,  in  consequence,  of  a  mixture  of  individuals 
of  different  origins. 

How  do  these  heterogeneous  races  come  to  combine 
and  to  form  an  historical  race  possessing  common 
psychological  characteristics  ?  This  is  the  point  we 
are  about  to  investigate. 

Let  it  first  of  all  be  observed  that  the  elements 
brought  together  by  chance  do  not  always  combine. 
The  German,  Hungarian,  Slav,  and  other  populations 
that  live  under  Austrain  rule  form  perfectly  distinct 
races  which  have  never  attempted  to  fuse.  The 
Irish,  who  live  under  the  rule  of  the  English,  are 
another  example  of  fusion  not  taking  place.  As 
for  the  quite  inferior  peoples,  such  as  Redskins, 
Australians,  or  Tasmanians,  not  only  do  they  not 
combine  with  the  superior  peoples,  but  they  dis- 
appear rapidly  after  they  have  come  in  contact  with 
them.  Experience  proves  that  every  inferior  people 
which  is  confronted  with  a  superior  people  is 
inevitably  condemned  to  disappear  at  an  early  date. 

Three  conditions  are  necessary  to  allow  of  races 
fusing  and  forming  a  new  and  more  or  less  homo- 
"geneous  race. 

The  first  condition  is  that  the  races  which  are  to 
interbreed  shall  not  be  too  unequal  in  number ;  the 


52  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

second,  that  their  characters  shall  not  be  too  dis- 
similar ;  the  third,  that  they  shall  be  ,  subjected  for 
a  long  period  to  identical  conditions  of  environment. 

The  first  of  the  conditions  that  have  just  been 
enumerated  is  of  capital  importance.  A  small 
number  of  white  men  transported  into  the  midst  of 
a  numerous  negro  population  disappear,  after  a  few 
generations,  without  leaving  any  trace  of  their  blood 
among  their  descendants.  All  the  conquerors  who 
have  invaded  too  numerous  populations  have  dis- 
appeared in  this  way.  They  have  been  able,  as  has 
been  done  by  the  Latins  in  Gaul  or  the  Arabs  in 
Egypt,  to  leave  behind  them  their  civilisation,  their 
arts  and  their  language,  but  they  have  never  been 
able  to  bequeath  their  blood. 

The  second  of  the  preceding  conditions  is  also 
of  very  great  importance.  Doubtless  very  different 
races,  the  black  and  the  white  for  example,  may  fuse, 
but  the  half-breeds  that  result  constitute  a  population 
very  inferior  to  those  of  which  it  is  sprung,  and  utterly 
incapable  of  creating,  or  even  of  continuing,  a  civilisa- 
tion. The  influence  of  contrary  heredities  saps  their 
morality  and  character.  When  half-breeds,  the  off- 
spring of  white  men  and  negroes,  have  chanced  to 
inherit  a  superior  civilisation,  as  in  Saint  Domingo, 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          53 

civilisation  has  speedily  been  overtaken  by  the 
>t  lamentable  degeneration.  Cross-breeding  may 
be  a  source  of  improvement  when  it  occurs  between 
superior  and  sufficiently  allied  races,  such  as  the 
English  and  the  Germans  of  America,  but  it  always 
constitutes  an  element  of  degeneration  when  the 
races,  even  though  superior,  are  too  different.1 

To  cross  two  peoples  is  to  change  simultaneously 
both  their  physical  constitution  and  their  mental  con- 
stitution. Cross-breeding,  moreover,  constitutes  the 
only  infallible  means  at  our  disposal  of  transforming 
in  a  fundamental  manner  the  character  of  people, 
heredity  being  the  only  force  powerful  enough  to 
contend  with  heredity.  Cross-breeding  allows  of  the 
creation  of  a  new  race,  possessing  new  physical  and 
psychological  characteristics. 

The  characteristics  thus  created  are  at  the  outset 


1  All  the  countries  inhabited  by  too  large  a  proportion  of  half-breeds 
are,  solely  for  this  reason,  given  over  to  perpetual  anarchy,  unless  they 
are  ruled  by  an  iron  hand.  Such  will  inevitably  be  the  fate  of  Brazil. 
White  men  form  only  a  third  of  its  population.  The  remainder  is 
composed  of  negroes  and  mulattoes.  The  famous  Agassiz  rightly 
observed  "that  it  is  sufficient  to  have  visited  Brazil  for  it  to  be  im- 
possible to  deny  the  decadence  that  results  from  cross-breeding  which 
goes  on  in  this  country  to  a  greater  extent  than  elsewhere.  This  cross- 
breeding is  fatal,  he  says,  to  the  best  qualities  whether  of  the  white 
man,  the  black,  or  the  Indian,  and  produces  an  indescribable  type 
whose  physical  and  mental  energy  suffers." 


54        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

very  weak  and  fluctuating.  To  fix  them  long, 
hereditary  accumulations  are  necessary.  The  first 
effect  of  interbreeding  between  different  races  is  to 
destroy  the  soul  of  the  races,  and  by  their  soul  we 
mean  that  congeries  of  common  ideas  and  sentiments 
which  make  the  strength  of  peoples,  and  without 
which  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  nation  or  a  father- 
land. The  period  of  interbreeding  is  the  critical 
period  in  the  history  of  peoples,  a  period  of  com- 
mencement and  hesitancy  which  all  nations  have  had 
to  traverse,  for  there  is  scarcely  a  European  people 
that  is  not  formed  of  the  debris  of  other  peoples.  It  is 
a  period  full  of  intestine  struggles  and  of  vicissitudes, 
and  it  continues  so  long  as  the  new  psychological 
characteristics  are  not  fixed. 

What  precedes  shows  that  interbreeding  should  be 
considered  at  once  as  a  fundamental  element  in  the 
formation  of  new  races  and  as  a  powerful  factor  in 
the  dissolution  of  ancient  races.  It  is  with  reason, 
then,  that  all  the  peoples  that  have  reached  a  high 
degree  of  civilisation  carefully  avoid  intermarrying 
with  foreigners.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  admirable 
regime  of  castes,  the  handful  of  Aryans  that  invaded 
India,  some  three  thousand  years  ago,  would  have 
been  quickly  swamped  by  the  immense  masses  of  the 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          55 

dark-coloured  populations  that  surrounded  them  on 
every  side,  and  no  civilisation  would  have  come  into 
existence  on  the  soil  of  the  great  peninsula.  If  in 
modern  times  the  English  had  not  followed  the 
same  system,  if  they  had  consented  to  intermarry 
with  the  indigenous  inhabitants,  their  gigantic  Indian 
Empire  would  long  since  have  slipped  from  their 
grasp.  A  people  may  sustain  many  losses,  may  be 
overtaken  by  many  catastrophes,  and  yet  recover  from 
the  ordeal,  but  it  has  lost  everything,  and  is  past 
recovery,  when  it  has  lost  its  soul. 

It  is  at  the  moment  when  decadent  civilisations 
have  become  the  prey  of  peaceful  or  warlike  invaders 
that  interbreeding  fills  in  succession  the  destructive 
and  then  the  creative  role  of  which  I  have  just  spoken. 
Cross-breeding  destroys  an  ancient  civilisation  because 
it  destroys  the  soul  of  the  people  that  possesses  it. 
It  fosters  the  creation  of  a  new  civilisation  because 
the  old  psychological  characteristics  of  the  races 
in  contact  have  been  destroyed,  and  because  new 
characteristics  may  be  formed  under  the  influence  of 
the  new  conditions  of  existence. 

It  is  only  on  races  in  course  of  formation,  and 
whose  ancestral  characteristics  have  been  destroyed 
in  consequence  by  contrary  heredities,  that  the  in- 


56  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

fluence  can  be  effective  of  the  last  of  the  factors 
mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  the 
influence  of  environment.  While  very  slight  on 
ancient  races,  the  influence  of  environment  is,  on  the 
contrary,  very  great  on  new  races.  Cross-breeding, 
by  destroying  the  ancestral,  psychological  charac- 
teristics, creates  a  sort  of  blank  tablet  on  which  the 
action  of  environment,  continued  during  centuries, 
may  succeed  in  impressing  and  finally  in  giving  fixity 
to  new  psychological  characteristics.  Then,  and 
then  only,  the  formation  of  a  new  historical  race 
results.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  French  race  was 
constituted. 

The  influence  of  environment — physical  or  moral — 
is  in  consequence  very  great  or  very  slight  according 
to  circumstances,  and  this  is  the  explanation  of  the 
contrary  opinions  that  have  been  formulated  with 
regard  to  its  action.  We  have  just  seen  that  this 
influence  is  very  great  on  races  in  course  of  formation  ; 
but  had  we  been  considering  ancient  races  solidly 
established  by  the  long  action  of  heredity,  we  could 
have  said  that  the  influence  of  environment  is,  on  the 
contrary,  almost  inappreciable. 

As  regards  moral  environment,  we  have  proof  of 
the  insignificance  of  its  action  in  the  failure  of  our 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  57 


Western  civilisations  to  influence  the  peoples  of  the 
East,  even  when  these  latter  have  been  subjected  to 
their  contact  during  several  generations  ;  the  Chinese 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States  are  a  case  in  point. 
The  slight  power  of  physical  environment  is  shown 
by  the  difficulties  that  attend  acclimatisation.  Trans- 
ported into  surroundings  too  different  from  those  to 
which  it  is  accustomed,  an  ancient  race — and  the 
statement  is  equally  applicable  to  men,  animals,  and 
plants — perishes  sooner  than  submit  to  transformation. 
Egypt  has  always  been  the  tomb  of  the  many  different 
races  that  have  effected  its  conquest.  Not  a  single 
people  has  been  able  to  acclimatise  itself  in  the 
country.  Neither  Greeks,  Romans,  Persians,  Arabs, 
nor  Turks  have  been  able  to  leave  behind  them  a 
trace  of  their  race.  The  only  type  that  is  met  with 
is  that  of  the  impassible  Fellah  whose  features 
exactly  resemble  those  engraved  seven  thousand 
years  ago  on  the  tombs  and  palaces  of  the  Pharaohs 
by  the  Egyptian  artists. 

The  majority  of  the  historical  races  of  Europe  are 
still  in  course  of  formation,  and  it  is  important  that  it 
should  be  known  that  this  is  the  case  with  a  view  to 
understanding  their  history.  At  the  present  day  the 
Englishman  is  the  only  European  who  represents  an 


58  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

almost  completely  fixed  race.  In  his  case  the  ancient 
Briton,  the  Saxon,  and  the  Norman  have  given  way 
to  a  new  and  highly  homogeneous  type.  In  France, 
on  the  contrary,  the  Provencal  is  very  different  from 
the  Breton,  the  inhabitant  of  Auvergne  from  the 
inhabitant  of  Normandy.  Still,  if  there  does  not  exist 
as  yet  an  average  type  of  the  Frenchman,  there  at 
least  exist  average  types  of  certain  regions.  Un- 
fortunately these  types  are  very  distinct  as  regards 
their  ideas  and  character.  It  is  difficult  in  con- 
sequence to  devise  institutions  which  shall  suit  them 
all  equally  well,  and  it  is  only  by  dint  of  energetic 
concentration  that  it  is  possible  to  lend  them  some 
community  of  thought.  Our  profound  divergences 
of  sentiment  and  belief,  and  the  political  upheavals 
which  result  therefrom,  are  due,  in  the  main,  to 
differences  of  mental  constitution,  which  the  future 
alone  will  perhaps  be  able  to  efface. 

Such  has  always  been  the  situation  when  different 
races  have  found  themselves  in  contact.  The  dis- 
sentiments  and  intestine  struggles  have  always  been 
the  more  acute  in  proportion  as  the  races  in  presence 
have  been  the  more  different.  When  they  are  too 
unlike  it  becomes  absolutely  impossible  to  make  them 
live  under  the  same  institutions  and  the  same  laws. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  59 


The  history  of  great  empires  composed  of  different 
races  has  always  been  identical.  Most  often  they 
disappear  with  their  founder.  Among  modern 
nations,  only  the  English  and  the  Dutch  have  been 
successful  in  imposing  their  yoke  on  Asiatic  peoples 
differing  widely  from  them,  and  their  success  is  solely 
due  to  the  fact  that  they  have  respected  the  manners, 
customs,  and  laws  of  the  peoples  in  question,  leaving 
them  in  reality  to  govern  themselves,  and  confining 
their  role  to  appropriating  a  portion  of  the  taxes,  to 
engaging  in  commerce,  and  to  maintaining  peace. 

Apart  from  these  rare  exceptions,  all  the  great 
empires  composed  of  dissimilar  peoples  owe  their 
foundation  to  force  and  are  destined  to  perish  by 
violence.  To  enable  a  nation  to  constitute  itself  and 
to  endure,  it  is  necessary  that  its  formation  should  be 
slow,  and  the  result  of  the  gradual  fusion  of  but 
slightly  different  races,  interbreeding,  living  on  the 
same  soil,  undergoing  the  action  of  the  same  environ 
ment,  and  having  the  same  institutions  and  beliefs 
After  the  lapse  of  several  centuries  these  distinct 
races  may  come  to  form  a  highly  homogeneous 
nation. 

As  the  world  grows  older,  the  races  become  more 
and  more  stable  and  their  transformation  by  means 


60        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

of  fusion  rarer  and  rarer.  As  it  advances  in  age, 
humanity  feels  the  burden  of  heredity  grow  heavier, 
and  transformations  become  more  difficult.  So  far  as 
Europe  is  concerned,  it  may  be  said  that  the  era  of 
the  formation  of  historical  races  will  soon  be  over. 


BOOK   II 

HO [V  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS 
OF  RACES  ARE  D  ISP  LA  YED  IN  THE  VARIOUS 
ELEMENTS  OF  THEIR  CIVILISATIONS 


BOOK   II 

HOW  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CHARACTERISTICS 
OF  RACES  ARE  D  ISP  LA  YED  IN  THE  VARIOUS 
ELEMENTS  OF  THEIR  CIVILISATIONS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  VARIOUS  ELEMENTS  OF  A  CIVILISATION  CON- 
SIDERED AS  AN  EXTERIOR  MANIFESTATION 
OF  THE  SOUL  OF  A  PEOPLE 

The   elements  of  which  a  civilisation  is  composed  are  the  exterior 
manifestations  of  the  soul  of  the  peoples,  which  have  created  them 

—  The  importance  of  these  various  elements  varies  with  the  different 
peoples—  According  to  the  several  peoples  it  is  the  arts,  literature, 
institutions,  etc.,  that  fill  the  fundamental  role  —  Examples  from 
antiquity  :  the  Egyptians,  Greeks,  and  Romans  —  The  evolution  of 
the  different  elements  of  a  civilisation  may  be  independent  of  the 
general  march  of  that  civilisation  —  Examples  supplied  by  the  arts 

—  What  they  express  —  Impossibility  of  finding  in  a  single  element 
of  a  civilisation  the  measure  of  the  level  of  that  civilisation  — 
Elements  which   assure  the  superiority  of  a  people  —  Elements 
which    philosophically  are  very  inferior    may  be    socially  very 
superior. 


"^HE  different  elements,  languages,  institutions, 
ideas,    beliefs,    arts,    literature,    of    which    a 

civilisation  is  composed  should  be  regarded  as  the 

63 


64  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

exterior  manifestation  of  the  soul  of  the  men 
who  have  created  them.  The  importance,  however, 
of  these  elements  as  the  expression  of  the  soul  of 
a  people  varies  greatly  with  the  period  and  the  races. 

Few  books  relating  to  works  of  art  appear  at  the 
present  day  that  do  not  contain  the  statement  that 
works  of  art  are  the  faithful  rendering  of  the  thought 
of  peoples  and  the  most  important  expression  of  their 
civilisation. 

Doubtless  it  is  often  true  that  this  is  the  case,  but 
the  rule  is  a  long  way  from  being  absolute,  and  the 
development  of  the  arts  is  far  from  corresponding 
invariably  to  the  intellectual  development  of  nations. 
While  there  are  certain  peoples  for  whom  works  of 
art  are  the  most  important  manifestation  of  their 
soul,  there  are  others,  who  occupy,  moreover,  a  high 
rank  in  the  scale  of  civilisation,  among  whom  the 
arts  have  played  but  a  very  secondary  part.  If  the 
history  of  the  civilisation  of  each  people  had  to  be 
written  on  the  understanding  that  only  one  of  its 
elements  was  to  be  considered,  the  element  chosen 
ought  to  vary  in  the  case  of  each  people.  For  some 
peoples  the  element  would  be  the  arts,  but  for  others 
it  would  be  their  institutions,  their  military  organisa- 
tion, their  industry,  their  commerce,  etc.,  that  would 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          65 

give  us  the  best  knowledge  of  them.  It  is  important 
to  establish  this  point  at  the  outset,  for  it  will  enable 
us  later  to  understand  how  it  is  that  the  various 
elements  of  a  civilisation  have  undergone  very  un- 
equal transformations  when  transmitted  from  one 
people  to  another. 

Among  the  peoples  of  antiquity,  the  Egyptians  and 
Romans  offer  highly  characteristic  examples  of  this 
inequality  in  the  development  of  the  various  elements 
of  a  civilisation,  and  even  in  the  various  branches  of 
which  each  of  these  elements  is  composed. 

Let  us  begin  by  considering  the  Egyptians.  Their 
literature  was  always  very  weak,  their  painting  of 
very  poor  quality.  In  architecture  and  statuary,  on 
the  contrary,  they  produced  masterpieces.  Their 
monuments  still  excite  our  admiration.  The  Egyptian 
statues  that  have  come  down  to  us,  the  Scribe,  the 
Cheik-el-Beled,  Rahotep,  Nefert-Ari,  and  many  others 
would  still  be  models  at  the  present  day,  and  it  was 
only  during  a  very  short  period  that  they  were  sur- 
passed by  the  Greeks. 

With  the  Egyptians  let  us  compare  the  Romans, 
whose  role  in  history  was  so  preponderating.  They 
lacked  neither  educators  nor  models,  since  they  came 
after  the  Egyptians  and  Greeks ;  and  yet  they  did 


66        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

not  succeed  in  creating  a  personal  art.  No  people, 
perhaps,  has  ever  displayed  less  originality  in  its 
artistic  productions.  The  Romans  held  the  arts  in 
very  slight  esteem,  scarcely  regarding  them  from 
other  than  a  utilitarian  point  of  view,  and  looking 
on  them  merely  as  a  sort  of  imported  article 
analogous  to  the  other  products,  such  as  metals, 
aromatics,  and  spices  for  which  they  were  indebted 
to  foreign  peoples.  At  the  period  when  they  were 
already  masters  of  the  world,  the  Romans  had  no 
national  art,  and  even  later  on,  when  universal  peace, 
wealth,  and  the  needs  of  luxury  somewhat  developed 
their  weak,  artistic  sentiments,  it  was  always  to 
Greece  that  they  went  for  models  and  artists.  The 
history  of  Roman  architecture  and  sculpture  is 
scarcely  more  than  an  appendix  to  the  history  of 
the  sculpture  and  architecture  of  Greece. 

On  the  other  hand  this  great  Roman  people,  which 
was  so  inferior  in  the  arts,  developed  three  other 
elements  of  civilisation  to  the  highest  pitch.  It 
possessed  military  institutions  which  insured  it  the 
empire  of  the  world ;  political  and  juridical  institu- 
tions which  still  serve  us  as  models ;  and  finally, 
it  created  a  literature  which  for  centuries  has  been 
the  source  of  inspiration  of  our  own. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          67 

We  thus  have  a  striking  example  of  the  unequal 
development  of  the  elements  of  a  civilisation  in  the 
case  of  two  nations  whose  high  degree  of  culture 
cannot  be  contested,  and  we  can  divine  the  errors 
that  would  result  from  taking  as  sole  standard  but 
one  of  these  elements — the  arts  for  example.  We 
have  just  found  that  among  the  Egyptians  the  arts, 
with  the  exception  of  painting,  were  extremely 
original  and  remarkable,  while  literature,  on  the 
contrary,  did  not  rise  above  mediocrity.  Among 
the  Romans  the  arts  were  mediocre  and  without  a 
trace  of  originality,  but  they  shone  in  the  field  of 
literature,  and  their  military  and  political  institutions 
were  of  the  highest  order. 

The  Greeks  themselves,  though  one  of  the  peoples 
that  has  displayed  the  most  superiority  in  the  most 
different  fields,  may  also  be  cited  in  proof  of  the 
unequal  way  in  which  the  development  of  the  various 
elements  of  a  civilisation  proceeds.  At  the  Homeric 
epoch  their  literature  was  already  very  brilliant,  since 
the  songs  of  Homer  are  still  regarded  as  the  models 
with  which  the  students  of  the  European  universities 
are  condemned  to  saturate  themselves ;  a  view  that 
has  been  taken  for  centuries  past.  But  the  discoveries 
of  modern  archaeology  have  proved  that,  at  the 


68  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

period  to  which  the  Homeric  songs  belong,  Greek 
sculpture  and  architecture  were  grossly  barbarian, 
and  confined  to  crude  imitations  of  Egyptian  and 
Assyrian  art. 

However,  it  is  more  especially  the  Hindoos  that 
furnish  us  with  an  example  of  the  unequal  develop- 
ment of  the  different  elements  of  a  civilisation.  As 
regards  architecture  they  have  been  surpassed  by 
very  few  peoples.  As  regards  philosophy  the  depth 
of  their  speculations  has  only  been  attained  to  by 
European  thought  at  a  quite  recent  date.  In  litera- 
ture, if  they  do  not  reach  the  level  of  the  Greeks 
and  Latins,  they  have  nevertheless  produced  ad- 
mirable work.  Their  statuary,  on  the  contrary,  is 
mediocre,  and  much  below  that  of  the  Greeks.  In 
the  domain  of  science  and  in  that  of  historical 
knowledge,  they  have  absolutely  nothing  to  show, 
and  they  exhibit  an  absence  of  precision  that  is  not 
met  with  to  an  equal  degree  in  any  other  people. 
Their  sciences  have  been  mere  childish  speculations  ; 
their  histories  absurd  legends,  containing  not  a  single 
exact  date  and  probably  not  a  single  exact  event. 
In  their  case,  once  again,  the  exclusive  study  of  the 
arts  would  be  insufficient  to  determine  the  level  of 
their  civilisation. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          69 

Many  other  examples  might  be  adduced  in  support 
of  what  precedes.  There  are  races  which,  although 
they  have  never  occupied  an  absolutely  superior  rank, 
have  succeeded  in  creating  an  absolutely  personal  art 
bearing  no  visible  relation  to  anterior  models.  The 
Arabs  are  a  case  in  point.  Less  than  a  century  after 
they  had  invaded  the  old  Greco-Roman  world,  they 
had  so  utterly  transformed  the  Byzantine  archi- 
tecture they  had  begun  by  adopting,  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  determine  the  types  that  had  in- 
spired them,  if  it  were  not  that  we  are  still  able  to 
consult  the  series  of  intermediary  monuments. 

Moreover,  even  if  a  people  should  not  possess  any 
artistic  or  literary  aptitude,  it  is  capable  of  creating 
a  civilisation  of  a  superior  order.  This  happened  in 
the  case  of  the  Phenicians,  whose  sole  superiority  was 
their  skill  in  commerce.  It  was  they  who  civilised 
the  ancient  world  by  bringing  all  its  parts  into 
communication  ;  but  as  far  as  they  themselves  were 
concerned  they  produced  scarcely  anything,  and  the 
history  of  their  civilisation  is  the  history  of  their 
imerce. 

Finally,  there   are   peoples   among  whom  all  the 
lents  of  civilisation  have  remained  in  an  inferior 
state  with  the  exception  of  the  arts.    The  Mongolians 


70        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

were  a  people  of  this  kind.  The  monuments  they 
raised  in  India,  in  a  style  about  which  there  is  scarcely 
anything  Hindoo,  are  so  magnificent  that  competent 
artists  declare  that  some  of  them  rank  among  the 
most  beautiful  monuments  that  have  been  raised  by 
the  hand  of  man ;  and  yet  nobody  could  think  of 
classing  the  Mongols  among  the  superior  races. 

It  will  be  noticed,  moreover,  that  even  among  the 
most  civilised  peoples,  it  is  not  always  at  the  culmi- 
nating period  of  their  civilisation  that  the  arts  attain 
to  the  highest  degree  of  development.  Among  the 
Egyptians  and  among  the  Hindoos  the  most  perfect 
monuments  are  generally  the  most  ancient ;  while  in 
Europe,  it  was  in  the  Middle  Ages,  an  epoch  regarded 
as  semi-barbarian,  that  flourished  that  marvellous 
Gothic  art  whose  admirable  productions  have  never 
been  equalled. 

In  consequence  it  is  quite  impossible  to  judge  of 
the  level  of  a  people  solely  by  the  development  of 
its  arts,  which  constitute,  I  repeat,  but  one  of  the 
elements  of  its  civilisation,  and  an  element  whose 
superiority  is  not  proven — any  more  than  the 
superiority  of  literature  is  proven.  It  often  happens, 
on  the  contrary,  that  it  is  among  the  peoples  at  the 
head  of  civilisation — the  Romans,  for  instance,  in 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  71 

ancient  times  and  the  Americans  at  the  present  day 
— that  artistic  productions  show  the  most  weakness. 
Frequently  too,  as  we  just  remarked,  it  has  been 
in  semi-barbarous  ages  that  the  peoples  have  pro- 
duced their  literary  and  artistic  masterpieces — their 
artistic  masterpieces  more  especially.  It  would  even 
seem  that  the  period  of  personality  in  the  arts,  in  the 
case  of  a  people,  is  a  growth  belonging  to  its  child- 
hood or  its  youth  and  not  to  its  maturity ;  and  if  it 
be  considered  that,  among  the  utilitarian  preoccu- 
pations of  the  new  world  of  which  we  catch  a  glimpse 
of  the  dawn,  the  role  of  the  arts  is  scarcely  observable, 
we  may  foresee  the  day  when  they  will  be  classed  if 
not  among  the  inferior,  at  least  among  the  quite 
secondary  manifestations  of  a  civilisation. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  the  progress  of  the 
arts  in  their  evolution  should  not  be  parallel  to  that 
of  the  other  elements  of  a  civilisation,  and  should  not 
in  consequence  be  always  a  sure  indication  of  the 
state  of  this  civilisation.  Whether  in  the  case  of 
Egypt,  of  Greece,  or  of  the  various  European  peoples, 
we  observe  this  general  law  that  as  soon  as  art  has 
reached  a  certain  level,  as  soon  that  is  as  certain 
masterpieces  have  been  produced,  there  immediately 
commences  a  period  of  decadence  entirely  independent 


72        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

of  the  movement  of  the  other  elements  of  the 
civilisation.  This  decadent  phase  of  the  arts  subsists 
until  a  political  revolution,  an  invasion,  the  adoption 
of  new  beliefs  or  any  other  factor  introduces  new 
elements  into  art.  It  was  in  this  way  that  in  the 
Middle  Ages  the  Crusades  were  the  source  of  fresh 
knowledge  and  new  ideas,  which  gave  an  impulsion 
to  art  that  resulted  in  the  transformation  of  the 
Roman  style  into  the  Gothic  style.  It  was  in  this 
way  again  that,  several  centuries  later,  the  revival 
of  Greek  and  Latin  studies  brought  about  the 
transformation  of  Gothic  art  into  the  art  of  the 
Renaissance.  In  India,  too,  the  Mussulman  invasions 
caused  the  transformation  of  Hindoo  art  in  precisely 
the  same  fashion. 

It  is  also  of  importance  to  observe,  that  since  the 
arts  express  in  general  fashion  certain  of  the  needs 
of  civilisation  and  correspond  to  certain  sentiments, 
they  are  fated  to  undergo  transformations  in  con- 
formity with  these  needs,  and  even  to  disappear 
entirely  if  the  needs  and  the  sentiments  which  have 
given  birth  to  them  should  themselves  be  transformed 
or  disappear.  It  will  in  nowise  follow,  however,  that 
the  civilisation  is  on  this  account  in  decadence,  and 
here  once  more  we  are  confronted  with  the  absence 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  73 

of  parallelism  between  the  evolution  of  the  arts  and 
that  of  the  other  elements  of  a  civilisation.  At  no 
period  in  history  has  civilisation  been  at  so  high  a 
pitch  as  at  the  present  day,  and  at  no  period  perhaps 
has  art  been  more  commonplace  and  less  personal. 
The  religious  beliefs,  the  ideas  and  the  needs  which 
made  art  an  essential  element  of  civilisation  at  the 
periods  when  it  had  temples  and  palaces  for  its 
sanctuaries  having  disappeared,  art  has  become  an 
accessory,  an  instrument  of  pleasure  to  which  it  is 
not  possible  to  devote  either  much  time  or  much 
money.  Being  no  longer  a  necessity,  it  can  scarcely 
escape  being  artificial  and  imitative.  At  the  present 
day  there  are  no  longer  peoples  who  possess  a  national 
art,  and  each  people,  in  architecture  as  in  sculpture, 
lives  on  more  or  less  happy  copies  of  the  work  of 
bygone  epochs. 

These  modest  copies  doubtless  represent  needs  or 
caprices,  but  it  is  clear  that  it  is  impossible  that  they 
should  express  our  modern  ideas.  I  admire  the  nai've 
works  of  our  artists  of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  seen  in 
their  paintings  of  saints,  of  Christ,  of  Paradise  and 
Hell,  all  of  which  were  of  fundamental  importance 
at  the  time  and  the  principal  concern  of  existence; 
but  when  painters  who  no  longer  entertain  these 


74        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

beliefs  cover  our  walls  with  primitive  legends  or 
childish  symbols  in  an  attempt  to  return  to  the 
technique  of  another  age,  they  merely  produce 
wretched  imitations  without  interest  for  the  present 
and  destined  to  arouse  contempt  in  the  future. 

The  only  real  arts,  the  only  arts  which  are  the 
expression  of  an  epoch,  are  those  in  which  the  artist 
represents  what  he  feels  or  what  he  sees  instead  of 
confining  himself  to  the  imitation  of  forms  corre- 
sponding to  needs  or  beliefs  we  have  ceased  to  possess. 
The  only  sincere  painting  of  the  present  day  is  that 
which  reproduces  the  things  by  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded, just  as  the  only  sincere  architecture  is  that 
of  the  five-storied  house,  the  viaduct,  and  the  railway 
station.  This  utilitarian  art  corresponds  to  the  needs 
and  ideas  of  our  civilisation.  It  is  as  characteristic 
of  the  epoch  as  were  formerly  the  Gothic  church  and 
the  feudal  castle.  For  the  archaeologist  of  the  future 
the  great  modern  caravansaries  and  the  old  Gothic 
churches  will  be  of  equal  interest  because  they  will  be 
successive  pages  in  those  books  of  stone  which  each 
century  leaves  behind  it,  while  he  will  disdain  as 
useless  documents  the  sorry  counterfeit  copies  of  so 
many  modern  artists. 

Every  aesthetic  system  represents  the  ideal  of  an 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          75 

epoch  and  of  a  race,  and  for  the  sole  reason  that 
epochs  and  races  are  different,  the  ideal  must  con- 
stantly be  varying.  From  the  philosophic  point  of 
view  all  ideals  are  of  equal  worth,  for  they  constitute 
more  transitory  symbols. 

The  arts  then,  like  all  the  elements  of  a  civilisation, 
are  the  exterior  manifestation  of  the  soul  of  the  people 
that  has  created  them  ;  but  we  ought  to  recognise, 
however,  that  they  are  far  from  constituting  in  the 
case  of  all  peoples  the  most  exact  manifestation  of 
their  thought. 

This  demonstration  was  necessary.  For  the  im- 
portance in  the  case  of  a  given  people  of  a  given 
element  of  civilisation  is  a  measure  of  the  power  of 
transformation  which  that  people  brings  to  bear  on 
the  element  in  question  when  it  borrows  it  from  a 
foreign  race.  If  its  personality  displays  itself  more 
especially  in  the  arts,  for  example,  its  reproductions 
of  imported  models  are  sure  to  be  deeply  marked  by 
its  own  imprint.  On  the  contrary  it  will  transform 
but  very  slightly  the  elements  that  are  incapable  of 
serving  to  interpret  its  genius.  When  the  Romans 
adopted  the  architecture  of  Greece  they  did  not 
make  it  the  object  of  radical  modifications,  because 
they  did  not  put  what  was  most  characteristic  of  their 
soul  into  their  monuments. 


76        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

Still,  even  in  the  case  of  such  a  people  as  the 
Romans,  who  were  without  a  personal  architecture, 
and  who  were  constrained  to  go  to  the  foreigner 
for  their  models  and  their  artists,  art  is  obliged 
in  the  course  of  but  few  centuries  to  undergo  the 
influence  of  environment  and  to  become,  almost  in 
spite  of  itself,  the  expression  of  the  race  that  has 
adopted  it.  The  temples,  palaces,  triumphal  arches, 
and  bas-reliefs  of  ancient  Rome  are  the  work  of 
Greeks  or  of  pupils  of  the  Greeks ;  and  yet  the 
character  of  these  monuments,  their  destination, 
their  ornaments,  even  their  dimensions,  do  not 
arouse  in  us  the  delicate,  poetic  memories  of  the 
Athenian  genius,  but  rather  the  ideas  of  force,  of 
domination,  and  of  military  passion  with  which  the 
mighty  soul  of  Rome  was  imbued.  Thus,  even  in 
the  field  in  which  it  shows  itself  least  personal,  a 
race  can  accomplish  nothing  that  does  not  bear  some 
trace  of  the  fact  that  it  was  due  to  its  initiative,  and 
without  revealing  something  of  its  mental  constitution 
and  innermost  thought. 

The  explanation  is  that  the  true  artist,  whether 
architect  or  poet,  possesses  the  magic  faculty  of 
expressing  in  his  syntheses  the  soul  of  an  epoch  and 
of  a  race.  Very  impressionable,  very  unconscious, 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  77 

thinking  more  especially  in  images,  and  reasoning 
but  little,  artists  are  at  certain  epochs  the  faithful 
mirrors  of  the  society  in  which  they  live ;  their 
works  are  the  most  exact  documents  to  which 
recourse  can  be  had  with  a  view  to  evoking  a 
vanished  civilisation.  They  are  too  unconscious  not 
to  be  sincere,  and  too  impressed  by  their  surround- 
ings not  to  give  faithful  expression  to  the  ideas, 
sentiments,  needs  and  tendencies  of  their  environ- 
ment. They  are  not  free  to  create  what  they  choose, 
and  the  fact  constitutes  their  strength.  They  are 
imprisoned  in  a  network  of  traditions,  ideas,  and 
beliefs,  the  sum  total  of  which  constitutes  the  soul  of 
a  race  and  an  epoch,  the  inheritance  of  sentiments, 
thoughts,  and  inspirations,  whose  influence  is  all 
powerful  over  them  because  it  governs  the  obscure 
regions  of  the  unconscious  in  which  their  works  are 
elaborated.  Were  we  without  these  works,  and  did 
we  know  nothing  of  the  vanished  centuries  but  what 
is  related  of  them  in  the  absurd  narratives  and  arti- 
ficial arrangements  of  the  books  of  history,  the  real 
past  of  each  people  would  be  almost  as  great  an 
enigma  to  us  as  that  of  the  mysterious  Atlantiades 
submerged,  according  to  Plato,  by  the  waters. 

The  essential  characteristic,  then,  of  the  work  of 


78  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

art  is  to  be  the  sincere  expression  of  the  needs  and 
ideas  of  the  age  that  gives  it  birth.  Of  all  the 
various  languages  which  relate  the  story  of  the  past, 
works  of  art,  those  of  architecture  in  particular,  are 
the  most  intelligible.  More  sincere  than  books,  less 
artificial  than  religions  and  languages,  they  express 
both  the  sentiments  and  the  needs  of  their  period. 
The  architect  builds  the  dwelling-places  of  men  and 
those  of  the  gods,  and  it  was  always  within  the 
precincts  of  the  temple  or  those  of  the  house  that 
were  elaborated  the  first  causes  of  the  events  which 
constitute  history. 

We  may  conclude  from  what  precedes,  that  while 
the  various  elements  of  which  a  civilisation  is  com- 
posed are  indeed  the  expression  of  the  soul  of  the 
people  that  has  created  them,  certain  of  these 
elements — though  which  of  them  varies  with  the 
races  and  also  with  the  epochs  in  the  case  of  the 
same  race — are  a  more  exact  expression  of  the  soul 
of  a  race  than  others. 

Since,  however,  the  nature  of  these  elements  varies 
with  the  different  peoples  and  the  different  epochs, 
it  is  evident  that  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  single 
element  capable  of  serving  as  a  common  standard 
whereby  to  gauge  the  level  of  the  different  civilisations. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  79 

It  is  also  evident  that  a  hierarchical  classification 
cannot  be  established  among  these  elements,  for  the 
classification  would  vary  from  century  to  century, 
the  importance  of  the  elements  considered  varying 
itself  with  the  periods. 

If  the  value  of  the  diverse  elements  of  a  civilisation 
were  to  be  judged  solely  from  the  point  of  view  of  pure 
utility,  it  might  be  affirmed  that  the  most  important 
elements  of  a  civilisation  are  those  which  allow  one 
people  to  subject  another,  that  is  to  say  military 
institutions.  But  if  this  test  were  adopted,  it  would 
be  necessary  to  rank  the  Greeks,  a  nation  of  artists, 
philosophers,  and  writers,  after  the  Romans  with 
their  invincible  cohorts,  the  virtuous  and  learned 
Egyptians  after  the  semi-barbarian  Persians,  and  the 
Hindoos  after  the  Mongols  who  were  also  semi- 
barbarians. 

History  is  but  little  concerned  with  these  subtle  dis- 
tinctions. The  only  superiority  before  which  it  always 
bows  is  military  superiority,  which  is  very  rarely 
accompanied  by  a  corresponding  superiority  in  the 
other  elements  of  civilisation,  or  at  least  does  not 
long  allow  the  maintenance  at  its  side  of  this  latter 
superiority.  Unfortunately  military  superiority 
cannot  decline  among  a  people  without  that  people 


8o  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

being  fated  to  disappear.  It  has  always  been  when 
they  had  reached  the  apogee  of  civilisation,  that  the 
superior  peoples  have  had  to  retire  before  barbarians, 
much  their  inferiors  as  regards  intelligence,  but  posses- 
sing certain  qualities  of  character  and  warlike  aptitudes 
to  which  too  refined  civilisations  have  always  been  fatal. 
It  is  necessary,  in  consequence,  to  arrive  at  the 
saddening  conclusion  that  it  is  the  elements  which, 
philosophically  speaking,  are  inferior,  that  are  the 
most  important  from  the  social  point  of  view.  If 
the  laws  of  the  future  are  to  be  those  of  the  past,  it 
may  be  said  that  to  have  attained  to  too  high  a 
degree  of  intelligence  and  culture  is  what  is  most 
harmful  to  a  people.  Peoples  perish  as  soon  as  the 
qualities  of  character  which  form  the  groundwork  of 
their  soul  begin  to  decline,  and  these  qualities  decline 
as  soon  as  the  civilisation  and  intelligence  of  a  people 
reach  a  high  level. 


CHAPTER   II 

HOW    INSTITUTIONS,    RELIGIONS,    AND    LANGUAGES 
ARE   TRANSFORMED 

The  superior  races  are  as  powerless  as  the  inferior  races  to  transform 
suddenly  the  elements  of  their  civilisation — Contradictions  pre- 
sented by  the  peoples  which  have  changed  their  religions,  lan- 
guages, and  arts — The  example  of  Japan — In  what  respect  these 
changes  are  only  apparent — The  profound  transformations  under- 
gone by  Buddhism,  Brahmanism,  Mahometanism  and  Christianity 
according  to  the  various  races  by  which  they  have  been  adopted — 
The  variations  undergone  by  institutions  and  languages  according 
to  the  race  that  adopts  them — That  the  words  which  in  different 
languages  are  considered  to  correspond  represent  very  dissimilar 
ideas  and  modes  of  thought — Impossibility  for  this  reason  of 
translating  certain  languages — Why,  in  books  of  history,  the 
civilisation  of  a  people  sometimes  seems'...  to  have  undergone  pro- 
found changes— Limits  of  the  reciprocal  influence  of  different 
civilisations. 

"\  ~\  7  E  have  shown  in  a  previous  book  that  the 
*  *  superior  races  are  wholly  unable  to  induce 
inferior  races  to  accept  their  civilisation  or  to  thrust 
it  on  them.  Taking  one  by  one  the  most  powerful 
means  of  action  at  the  disposal  of  Europeans — 
education,  institutions,  beliefs — we  have  proved  their 

absolute  inefficacy  as  means  of  changing  the  social 

7  si 


82        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

state  of  the  inferior  peoples.  We  have  endeavoured 
to  establish,  that  since  all  the  elements  of  a  civili- 
sation correspond  to  a  certain  well-defined  mental 
constitution  created  by  heredity  in  the  course  of  a 
long  past,  it  is  impossible  to  modify  them  without 
changing  the  mental  constitution  of  which  they  are 
the  outcome.  Such  a  task  is  beyond  the  power  of 
conquerors,  and  can  only  be  accomplished  by  the 
lapse  of  centuries.  We  have  also  shown  that  it  is 
only  by  a  series  of  successive  stages,  analogous  to 
those  traversed  by  the  barbarians  who  destroyed  the 
Greco-Roman  civilisation,  that  a  people  can  rise  in 
the  scale  of  civilisation.  If  it  be  sought,  by  means  of 
education,  to  spare  a  people  these  stages,  all  that  is 
done  is  to  disorganise  its  morality  and  its  intelli- 
gence, and  to  reduce  it  in  the  end  to  a  level  inferior  to 
that  it  would  have  reached  if  it  had  been  left  to  itself. 
The  arguments  we  have  applied  to  inferior  races 
are  equally  applicable  to  superior  races.  If  the 
principles  we  have  set  forth  in  this  work  are  correct, 
it  ought  to  be  clear  that  the  superior  races  are  also 
incapable  of  suddenly  transforming  their  civilisation. 
They,  too,  require  time,  and  need  to  traverse  suc- 
cessive stages.  If  the  superior  peoples  seem  at  times 
to  have  adopted  beliefs,  institutions,  languages  and 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  83 

arts  differing  from  those  of  their  ancestors,  they  have 
done  so  in  reality  only  after  having  slowly  and 
profoundly  transformed  them  so  as  to  bring  them 
into  touch  with  their  mental  constitution. 

History  appears  to  contradict  on  every  page  the 
preceding  proposition.  It  offers  us  frequent  ex- 
amples of  peoples  changing  the  elements  of  their 
civilisation,  adopting  new  religions,  new  languages, 
new  institutions.  Some  peoples  abandon  the  beliefs 
they  have  held  for  centuries  and  are  converted  to 
Christianity,  Buddhism  or  Mahometanism  :  others 
transform  their  language ;  yet  others  radically 
modify  their  institutions  and  their  arts.  It  even 
seems  that  it  rests  with  a  conqueror  or  an  apostle  to 
provoke  such  transformations,  or  even  that  they 
result  from  a  mere  caprice. 

History,  however,  in  offering  these  accounts  of 
sudden  revolutions  does  no  more  than  accomplish  one 
of  its  habitual  missions  :  the  creation  and  propagation 
of  enduring  errors.  When  these  alleged  changes  are 
closely  studied,  it  is  soon  perceived  that  it  is  only  the 
names  of  things  that  easily  vary,  whereas  the  realities 
hidden  behind  the  words  continue  to  exist  and  are 
only  transformed  with  exceeding  slowness. 

To  prove  this  assertion,  and  to  show  at  the  same 


84        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

time  how  the  slow  evolution  of  things  goes  on 
behind  denominations  that  remain  unchanged,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  study  the  elements  of  each 
civilisation  in  the  case  of  the  different  peoples,  that 
is  to  re-write  their  history.  I  have  already  essayed 
this  laborious  task  in  several  volumes  ;  it  will  not  be 
asked,  in  consequence,  that  I  should  again  attempt  it 
here.  Leaving  aside  the  numerous  elements  of 
which  a  civilisation  is  composed,  I  shall  choose  but 
one  of  them  as  an  example  :  the  arts. 

Before  approaching,  however,  in  a  special  chapter, 
the  study  of  the  evolution  accomplished  by  the  arts 
in  passing  from  one  people  to  another,  I  shall  make  a 
few  remarks  respecting  the  changes  undergone  by 
the  other  elements  of  civilisation,  in  order  to  show 
that  the  laws  applicable  to  one  of  these  elements  are 
perfectly  applicable  to  all  of  them,  and  that  if  the 
arts  of  the  different  peoples  correspond  to  a  certain 
mental  constitution,  as  much  is  to  be  said  of  their 
languages,  institutions,  beliefs,  etc.,  which  in  conse- 
quence cannot  change  suddenly  and  pass  indifferently 
from  one  people  to  another.1 

1  I  shall  not  deal  here  with  the  case  of  Japan,  having  already  treated 
it  elsewhere,  while  I  shall  certainly  return  to  it  on  a  future  occasion. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  study  in  a  few  pages  a  question  on  the 
subject  of  which  eminent  statesmen  are  the  victims  of  delusions  which 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  85 

It  is  more  especially  in  connection  with  religious 
beliefs  that  this  theory  may  appear  paradoxical,  and 
yet  it  is  precisely  in  the  history  of  these  very 
beliefs  that  the  best  examples  are  to  be  found  in 
proof  that  it  is  as  impossible  for  a  people  suddenly 
to  change  the  elements  of  its  civilisation,  as  for  an 
individual  to  alter  his  stature  or  the  colour  of  his 
eyes. 

Nobody,  doubtless,  is  ignorant  that  all  the  great 
religions,  Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  Christianity,  or 
Mahometanism,  have  provoked  conversions  en  masse 
among  entire  races  who  have  seemed  to  adopt  them 
on  a  sudden  ;  however,  when  a  closer  study  is  made 
of  these  conversions  it  is  soon  observed  that  what 
the  peoples  have  more  especially  changed  is  the 
name  of  their  old  religion  and  not  their  religion 
itself,  and  that  in  reality  the  adopted  beliefs  have 
undergone  the  transformations  necessary  to  bring 

are  shared  unfortunately  by  certain  philosophers  wanting  in  insight. 
The  prestige  adhering  to  military  triumphs,  even  though  achieved  at 
the  expense  of  mere  barbarians,  still  remains  for  many  minds  the 
criterion  of  the  level  of  a  civilisation.  It  is  possible  to  drill  an  army 
of  negroes  in  accordance  with  European  military  principles  and  to 
teach  them  to  handle  rifles  and  canon,  but  their  mental  inferiority  and 
the  consequences  it  involves  will  not  be  modified  on  this  account.  The 
varnish  of  European  civilisation  boasted  at  present  by  Japan  in  nowise 
corresponds  to  the  mental  condition  of  the  race.  It  is  a  trumpery 
borrowed  garment  which  will  soon  be  rent  by  violent  revolutions. 


86        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

them  into  touch  with  the  old  beliefs  they  have 
replaced,  and  of  which  in  reality  they  are  a  mere 
continuation. 

The  transformations  undergone  by  beliefs  in  pass- 
ing from  one  people  to  another  are  often  indeed  so 
considerable,  that  the  newly  adopted  religion  has  no 
longer  any  visible  relationship  with  that  of  which  it 
has  kept  the  n'ame.  The  best  example  is  offered  us 
by  Buddhism,  which,  after  having  been  transported 
into  China,  has  become  so  unrecognisable  that  the 
learned  took  it  at  first  to  be  an  independent  religion 
and  were  a  long  time  before  they  recognised  that 
this  religion  was  merely  Buddhism  transformed  by 
the  race  that  had  adopted  it.  Chinese  Buddhism  is 
in  no  sort  the  Buddhism  of  India,  itself  very  different 
from  the  Buddhism  of  Nepaul,  which  in  turn  is 
sufficiently  distinct  from  the  Buddhism  of  Ceylon. 
In  India,  Buddhism  was  a  schism  from  Brahmanism 
which  preceded  it,  and  from  which  at  bottom  it 
differed  to  no  very  great  extent ;  in  China,  it  was  also  a 
schism  from  earlier  beliefs  to  which  it  is  closely  related. 

The  rigorous  proof  that  is  possible  in  the  case  of 
Buddhism  is  forthcoming  as  well  in  that  of  Brah- 
manism. The  races  of  India  being  extremely 
varied,  it  was  easy  to  presume  that,  under  identical 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  87 

names,  they  would  have  extremely  different  religious 
beliefs.  Doubtless  all  the  Brahmanic  peoples  regard 
Vishnou  and  Siva  as  their  principal  divinities  and  the 
Vedas  as  their  sacred  books  ;  but  of  these  funda- 
mental gods  the  religion  has  retained  but  the  name, 
and  of  the  sacred  books  but  the  text.  Around  these 
central  and  common  features  have  grown  up  inumer- 
able  cults  in  which  are  found,  according  to  the  races, 
the  most  varied  beliefs  :  monotheism,  polytheism, 
fetichism,  pantheism,  the  worship  of  ancestors,  of 
demons,  of  animals,  etc.  Were  the  religions  of 
India  to  be  judged  solely  by  what  is  found  concern- 
ing them  in  the  Vedas,  not  the  least  idea  would  be 
obtained  of  the  gods  and  beliefs  of  the  immense 
peninsula.  The  title  of  the  sacred  books  is  vene- 
rated by  all  the  Brahmans,  but  there  survives  in 
general  nothing  of  the  religion  taught  by  these 
books. 

Islamism  itself,  in  spite  of  the  simplicity  of  its 
monotheism,  has  not  evaded  this  law  ;  it  is  a  far  cry 
from  the  Islamism  of  Persia  to  that  of  Arabia  and 
that  of  India.  The  Hindoo,  essentially  a  polytheist, 
has  contrived  to  render  polytheistic  the  most  mono- 
theistic of  beliefs.  For  the  fifty  millions  of  Hindoo 
Mahometans,  Mahomet  and  the  saints  of  Islam  are 


88  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

scarcely  more  than  new  gods  added  to  thousands  of 
others.  Islamism  has  ever  been  unable  to  establish 
in  India  that  equality  of  all  men  which  elsewhere 
was  one  of  the  causes  of  its  success.  The  Mussulmans 
of  India,  like  the  other  Hindoos,  practise  the  system 
of  castes.  In  the  Deccan,  among  the  Dravidian 
populations,  Islamism  has  become  so  unrecognisable 
that  it  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  from  Brahmanism; 
indeed  it  would  not  be  distinguished  from  it  at  all 
but  for  the  name  of  Mahomet,  and  for  the  mosque 
where  the  prophet,  become  a  god,  is  worshipped. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  as  far  as  India  to  observe 
the  profound  modifications  undergone  by  Islamism 
in  passing  from  one  race  to  another.  It  suffices  to 
consider  our  great  possession,  Algeria.  It  contains 
two  very  different  races :  Arabs  and  Berbers,  both 
of  them  Mussulmans.  The  Islamism  of  the  former 
is  far  removed  from  that  of  the  latter  ;  the  polygamy 
of  the  Koran  has  become  monogamy  among  the 
Berbers,  whose  religion  is  scarcely  more  than  a  fusion 
between  Islamism  and  the  old  paganism  practised 
by  the  race  since  the  distant  ages  of  Carthaginian 
rule. 

The  religions  of  Europe  themselves  are  not  excepted 
from  the  common  law  which  obliges  beliefs  to  under- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  89 

go  a  transformation  in  accordance  with  the  soul  of 
the  races  by  which  they  are  adopted.  As  in  India, 
the  letter  of  the  dogmas  fixed  by  the  texts  has 
remained  invariable ;  but  these  dogmas  are  vain 
formulae  of  which  each  race  interprets  the  meaning 
after  its  own  fashion.  Under  the  uniform  denomina- 
tion of  Christians  are  found  in  Europe  veritable 
pagans,  such  as  the  Bas-Breton  who  worships  idols ; 
fetichists,  such  as  the  Spaniard  who  adores  amulets  ; 
polytheists,  such  as  the  Italian  who  venerates  as 
very  different  divinities  the  madonnas  of  each  village. 
Were  this  study  to  be  prosecuted  further,  it  would 
be  easy  to  show  that  the  great  religious  schism  of 
the  Reformation  was  the  necessary  consequence  of 
the  interpretation  of  one  and  the  same  religious  book 
by  different  races  :  those  of  the  North,  wishing  to 
discuss  their  belief,  regulate  their  life  themselves,  and 
those  of  the  South  having  remained  far  behind  from 
the  point  of  view  of  independence  and  the  philosophic 
spirit.  No  example  would  be  more  convincing. 

These  are  facts,  however,  the  development  of  which 
would  lead  us  beyond  our  scope.  We  shall  have  to 
deal  still  more  briefly  with  the  two  other  fundamental 
elements  of  civilisation,  institutions  and  languages, 
because  it  would  be  necessary  to  enter  into  technical 


90        THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

details  that  wholly  surpass  the  limits  of  this  work. 
What  is  true  in  the  case  of  beliefs,  is  equally  true  in 
that  of  institutions ;  these  latter  cannot  be  transmitted 
from  one  people  to  another  without  undergoing 
transformation.  Not  wishing  to  multiply  examples, 
I  beg  the  reader  merely  to  consider  how  greatly,  in 
modern  times,  the  same  institutions,  imposed  by  force 
or  persuasion  on  different  races,  have  been  transformed, 
though  retaining  identical  names.  I  shall  demonstrate 
the  fact  in  a  forthcoming  chapter  in  connection  with 
the  different  regions  of  America. 

Institutions  are  the  outcome  in  reality  of  necessities 
on  which  the  will  of  a  single  generation  of  men  can 
have  no  action.  For  each  race,  and  for  each  phase 
of  the  evolution  of  that  race,  there  are  conditions  of 
existence,  sentiments,  thoughts,  opinions,  hereditary 
influences  which  imply  certain  institutions  and  do 
not  imply  others.  The  label  a  Government  bears 
is  of  very  slight  importance.  It  has  never  been 
accorded  a  people  to  choose  the  institutions  which 
appear  to  it  to  be  the  best.  Should  some  rare  stroke 
of  chance  allow  a  people  to  choose  its  institutions,  it 
will  be  unable  to  keep  them.  The  numerous  revolu- 
tions, the  successive  changes  of  constitution,  affected 
by  the  French  during  the  last  hundred  years  con- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  91 

stitute  an  experience  which  should  long  since  have 
settled  the  opinion  of  statesmen  on  this  point.  I 
believe,  moreover,  that  it  is  scarcely  elsewhere  than 
in  the  obtuse  brain  of  the  masses  and  the  narrow 
minds  of  some  few  fanatics  that  the  idea  can  persist 
that  important  social  changes  are  to  be  brought  about 
by  legislative  acts.  The  only  useful  role  of  institutions 
is  to  give  legal  sanction  to  changes  which  manners 
and  public  opinion  have  ended  by  accepting.  Insti- 
tutions are  moulded  by  these  changes,  but  they  are 
not  in  advance  of  them.  The  character  and  thought 
of  men  are  not  to  be  modified  by  institutions.  It  is 
not  by  institutions  that  a  people  is  rendered  religious 
or  sceptical,  or  that  it  is  taught  to  conduct  its  own 
affairs  without  incessantly  demanding  of  the  State 
that  it  shall  forge  it  a  chain. 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  the  question  of  languages  any 
more  than  on  that  of  institutions,  and  shall  confine 
myself  to  drawing  attention  to  the  fact  that  even 
where  a  language  is  fixed  by  writing,  it  is  necessarily 
transformed  in  passing  from  one  people  to  another, 
a  truth  that  renders  so  absurd  the  idea  of  an  universal 
language.  Doubtless  the  Gauls,  in  spite  of  their 
immense  numerical  superiority,  had  adopted  the  Latin 
language  less  than  two  centuries  after  their  conquest, 


92  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

but  they  were  quick  to  bring  the  newly  adopted 
tongue  into  harmony  with  their  needs,  and  the  logic 
peculiar  to  their  bent  of  mind.  Modern  French  is 
the  final  result  of  these  transformations. 

It  is  impossible  for  different  races  to  speak  the 
same  language  for  any  length  of  time.  The  chances 
of  conquest,  the  interests  of  its  commerce  may  doubt- 
less bring  a  people  to  adopt  another  language  in  the 
place  of  its  mother  tongue,  but  after  the  lapse  of  a 
few  generations  the  language  adopted  will  have  been 
entirely  transformed.  The  transformation  will  be 
the  more  thorough  in  proportion  as  the  race  from 
which  the  language  has  been  borrowed  is  the  more 
different  from  that  which  has  borrowed  it. 

Dissimilar  languages  are  always  certain  to  be  met 
with  in  countries  inhabited  by  different  races.  India 
affords  an  excellent  example  in  point.  The  great 
peninsula  being  inhabited  by  numerous  different  races, 
it  is  not  astonishing  that  two  hundred  and  forty 
languages  should,  according  to  the  linguistic  author- 
ities, be  spoken  in  it,  some  of  them  differing  more 
from  each  other  than  do  French  and  Greek.  These 
two  hundred  and  forty  languages  do  not  include  some 
three  hundred  dialects !  The  widest  spread  among 
these  languages  is  quite  modern,  since  it  has  only 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  93 

existed  for  three  centuries ;  it  is  Hindustanee,  a 
language  formed  by  a  combination  of  the  Persian 
and  Arabian  spoken  by  the  Mussulman  conquerors 
and  Hindi,  one  of  the  principal  tongues  of  the  invaded 
regions.  Conquerors  and  conquered  soon  forgot  their 
primitive  language,  exchanging  it  for  a  new  language 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  new  race  produced  by 
the  interbreeding  of  the  various  peoples  brought 
together. 

I  cannot  dwell  longer  on  the  matter,  and  am 
obliged  to  confine  myself  to  indicating  the  funda- 
mental ideas.  Were  I  able  to  enter  into  the  necessary 
developments,  I  would  go  further  and  would  say  that 
where  peoples  are  different,  the  words  considered 
among  them  as  corresponding  represent  modes  of 
thinking  and  feeling  so  far  apart,  that  in  reality  their 
languages  have  no  synonyms,  and  real  translation 
from  one  language  into  the  other  is  impossible.  How 
wholly  this  is  the  case  will  be  understood  by  observing 
how  in  the  same  country,  and  among  the  same  race, 
the  same  word  corresponds  in  the  course  of  centuries 
to  quite  dissimilar  ideas. 

Old  words  represent  the  ideas  of  the  men  of  the 
past.  Words  which  at  their  origin  were  the  signs  of 
real  things  soon  have  their  meaning  altered  in  conse- 


94       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

quence  of  changes  in  ideas,  manners,  and  customs. 
Recourse  is  still  had  to  these  timeworn  signs,  for  it 
would  be  too  difficult  to  change  them,  but  there  is 
no  correspondence  between  what  they  represented 
at  a  given  moment,  and  what  they  signify  at  the 
present  day.  In  the  case  of  peoples  at  a  great 
distance  from  us,  and  whose  civilisations  were  without 
analogy  with  our  own,  translations  can  only  give 
words  absolutely  deprived  of  their  real  primitive  sense, 
words,  that  is,  evoking  ideas  in  our  mind  which  have 
no  relation  to  those  they  formerly  evoked.  This 
phenomenon  is  specially  striking  in  connection  with 
the  ancient  languages  of  India.  The  ideas  of  the 
Indian  people  are  indistinct,  their  logic  has  no  rela- 
tionship with  our  own,  and  their  words  have  never 
had  that  precise  and  definite  meaning  which  the 
lapse  of  centuries  and  the  turn  of  our  minds  has 
ended  by  giving  words  in  Europe.  There  are  books, 
the  Vedas  for  example,  the  translation  of  which, 
though  it  has  been  vainly  attempted,  is  impossible.1 
It  is  difficult  enough  to  penetrate  the  thought  of  the 

1  Talking  of  the  numerous  attempts  to  translate  the  Vedas,  an 
eminent  Indian  scholar,  Mr.  Earth,  remarks:  "All  these  various  and 
at  times  so  contradictory  investigations  have  one  result ;  they  demon- 
strate how  impossible  it  is  for  us  to  make  a  translation,  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word,  of  the  Vedas." 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  95 

individuals  with  whom  we  live,  but  from  whom  we 
are  separated  by  certain  differences  of  age,  sex,  and 
education  ;  to  penetrate  the  thought  of  races  on 
whom  the  dust  of  centuries  has  accumulated  is  a 
task  no  scholar  will  ever  succeed  in  accomplishing. 
All  the  learning  it  is  possible  to  acquire  merely  serves 
to  show  the  complete  uselessness  of  attempts  of  the 
kind. 

Brief  and  slightly  developed  though  the  preceding 
examples  be,  they  suffice  to  show  how  profound  are 
the  transformations  peoples  effect  in  the  elements  of 
civilisation  they  borrow.  The  importance  of  the 
elements  borrowed  often  appears  to  be  considerable, 
because  the  change  in  names  is  in  fact  sudden  ;  this 
importance  is  in  reality  very  slight.  In  the  course 
of  centuries,  thanks  to  the  slow  labours  of  generations 
and  in  consequence  of  successive  additions,  the 
borrowed  element  ends  by  differing  greatly  from  the 
element  of  which  it  originally  took  the  place.  His- 
tory, which  takes  note  more  especially  of  appearances, 
pays  but  little  attention  to  these  successive  variations, 
and  when  it  tells  us,  for  example,  that  a  people 
adopted  a  new  religion,  what  we  at  once  represent 
to  ourselves  is  not  at  all  the  beliefs  really  adopted,  but 
the  religion  such  as  we  know  it  at  the  present  day. 


96  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

It  is  necessary  to  study  these  slow  adaptations  with 
the  utmost  closeness,  in  order  to  understand  their 
genesis,  and  to  detect  the  differences  that  separate 
words  from  realities. 

The  history  of  civilisations  is  thus  composed  of  slow 
adaptations,  of  slight  successive  transformations.  If 
these  latter  appear  to  us  to  be  sudden  and  consider- 
able, it  is  because,  as  in  geology,  we  suppress  the 
intermediate  phases  and  only  consider  the  extreme 
phases. 

In  reality,  however  intelligent  and  gifted  a  people 
be  supposed  to  be,  its  capacity  for  absorbing  a  new 
element  of  civilisation  is  always  very  restricted.  The 
brain  cells  do  not  assimilate  in  a  day  what  it  has 
taken  centuries  to  create,  and  what  is  adapted  to  the 
sentiments  and  needs  of  organisms  that  differ  from 
one  another.  Only  slow  hereditary  accumulations 
allow  of  such  assimilations.  Further  on,  when  we 
come  to  study  the  evolutions  of  the  arts  among  the 
most  intelligent  of  the  peoples  of  antiquity,  the 
Greeks,  we  shall  see  that  many  centuries  were  neces- 
sary before  the  rude  copies  of  Assyrian  and  Egyptian 
models  were  left  behind,  and,  after  long  successive 
stages,  those  masterpieces  were  produced  which  are 
still  the  admiration  of  humanity 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          97 

It  must  also  be  observed  that  all  the  peoples  which 
have  succeeded  one  another  in  history — with  the 
exception  of  a  few  primitive  peoples  such  as  the 
Egyptians  and  Chaldeans — have  had  little  to  assimi- 
late beyond  the  elements  of  civilisation  which  consti- 
tute the  inheritance  of  the  past ;  elements  they  have 
transformed  in  accordance  with  their  mental  consti- 
tution. The  development  of  the  world's  civilisations 
would  have  been  infinitely  slower,  and  the  history  of 
the  various  peoples  would  have  been  one  eternal 
recommencement,  if  they  had  been  unable  to  profit 
by  the  materials  elaborated  before  their  time.  The 
civilisations  created  some  seven  or  eight  thousand 
years  ago,  by  the  inhabitants  of  Egypt  and  Chaldaea, 
have  served  as  a  store  of  materials  to  which  all  the 
nations  have  had  recourse  in  turn.  The  arts  of 
Greece  owe  their  origin  to  the  arts  created  on  the 
banks  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Nile.  The  Grecian  style 
gave  birth  to  the  Roman  style  which,  under  the  action 
of  Oriental  influences,  has  given  birth  to  the  Byzantine, 
Roman,  and  Gothic  styles,  styles  which  vary  accord- 
ing to  the  genius  and  age  of  the  peoples  among 
whom  they  flourished,  but  styles  that  have  a  common 
origin. 

What  we  have  just  said  in  connection  with  the  arts 
8 


98  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

is  applicable  to  all  the  elements  of  a  civilisation : 
institutions,  languages,  and  beliefs.  The  European 
languages  are  derived  from  a  mother-tongue  which 
was  spoken  in  the  past  on  the  central  plateau  of 
Asia.  French  law  is  an  offshoot  of  Roman  law, 
itself  the  offshoot  of  earlier  codes  of  law.  The  Jewish 
religion  proceeds  directly  from  the  Chaldaean  beliefs. 
Associated  with  Aryan  beliefs  it  has  become  the 
great  religion  which  for  nearly  two  thousand  years 
has  exerted  its  sway  over  the  Western  peoples.  Our 
sciences  themselves  would  not  be  what  they  are  were 
it  not  for  the  slow  labour  of  centuries.  The  great 
founders  of  modern  astronomy,  Copernicus,  Kepler, 
and  Newton,  are  the  lineal  descendants  of  Ptolemy, 
whose  books  retained  their  influence  down  to  the 
fifteenth  century,  while  Ptolemy  descends,  through 
the  Alexandrian  school,  from  the  astronomers  of 
Egypt  and  Chaldsea.  We  thus  get  a  glimpse,  in 
spite  of  the  formidable  gaps  of  which  history  is  full, 
of  a  slow  evolution  of  our  knowlege  which  takes  us 
back  through  the  successive  ages  and  empires  to  the 
dawn  of  those  ancient  civilisations,  which  modern 
science  is  attempting  to  link  with  the  primitive  times 
when  humanity  had  no  history.  But  if  the  source  is 
common,  the  transformations — progressive  or  regres- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION  99 

sive — which  each  people  effects,  according  to  its 
mental  constitution,  in  the  elements  it  borrows  are 
very  varied  ;  and  it  is  the  history  of  these  transforma- 
tions that  constitutes  the  history  of  civilisation. 

We  have  just  seen  that  the  fundamental  elements 
of  which  a  civilisation  is  composed  are  peculiar  to 
each  people,  that  they  are  the  result,  the  expression 
of  its  mental  structure,  and  that  in  consequence  they 
cannot  pass  from  one  race  to  another  without  under- 
going the  most  profound  changes.  We  have  also 
seen  that  the  extent  of  these  changes  is  marked  on 
the  one  hand  by  linguistic  necessities  which  oblige 
us  to  employ  the  same  words  to  designate  very 
different  things,  and  on  the  other  hand  by  historical 
necessities  which  lead  us  to  take  into  account  only 
the  extreme  forms  of  a  civilisation,  and  to  neglect 
the  intermediary  forms  by  which  they  are  connected. 
When  studying,  in  the  next  chapter,  the  general  laws 
of  the  evolution  of  the  arts,  we  shall  be  able  to  show 
with  still  greater  precision  the  succession  of  the 
changes  which  take  place  in  the  fundamental  elements 
of  a  civilisation  when  they  pass  from  one  people  to 
another. 


CHAPTER   III 

HOW  THE  ARTS  ARE   TRANSFORMED 

Application  of  the  principles  already  set  forth  to  the  study  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  arts  among  the  Oriental  peoples — Egypt — The  religious 
ideas  from  which  its  arts  are  derived — Developments  that  await  its 
arts  when  they  are  transplanted  amid  different  races  :  Ethiopians, 
Greeks,  and  Persians — Primitive  inferiority  of  Grecian  art — Slow- 
ness of  its  evolution — Adoption  and  evolution  in  Persia  of  Grecian 
art,  Egyptian  art,  and  Assyrian  art — The  transformations  under- 
gone by  the  arts  depend  on  the  race  and  not  on  religious  beliefs — 
Examples  supplied  by  the  great  transformations  undergone  by 
Arabian  art  according  to  the  races  which  have  adopted  Islamism — 
Application  of  our  principles  to  the  investigation  of  the  origin 
and  evolution  of  the  arts  in  India — India  and  Greece  went  to  the 
same  sources,  but  in  consequence  of  the  diversity  of  the  races  they 
developed  arts  having  no  relationship — Immense  transformations 
undergone  by  architecture  in  India  among  the  different  races  in 
spite  of  the  similarity  of  their  beliefs. 

IN   examining  the   relations  between  the   mental 
constitution    of    a    people,    its    institutions,    its 
beliefs,   and   its   language,    I    have   had    to    confine 
myself  to  brief  indications.     To  elucidate  such  sub- 
jects, it  would  be  necessary  to  pile  up  volumes. 

In  the  case  of  the  arts,  a  clear  and  precise  state- 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  101 

ment  is  infinitely  easier.  Institutions  and  beliefs  are 
matters  whose  definition  is  doubtful,  whose  interpreta- 
tion is  obscure.  The  reality,  which  changes  with 
every  epoch,  has  to  be  searched  for  in  the  ancient 
texts  in  which  it  lies  concealed,  and  laborious  argu- 
mentation and  criticism  must  be  resorted  to  in  order 
to  arrive  at  conclusions  which,  at  the  finish,  are  open 
to  discussion.  Works  of  art,  and  in  particular  monu- 
ments, are  very  definite  objects,  and  easy  of  interpre- 
tation. The  books  of  stone  are  the  most  luminous  of 
books,  the  only  books  that  never  lie,  and  it  is  for  this 
reason  that  I  have  given  them  a  preponderant  place 
in  my  works  on  the  history  of  the  civilisations  of  the 
East.  I  have  always  held  literary  documents  in  the 
utmost  suspicion.  They  are  often  deceptive  and  they 
rarely  instruct.  The  monument  rarely  deceives  and 
is  always  instructive.  The  monument  is  the  best 
guardian  of  the  thought  of  vanished  peoples,  and  the 
mental  blindness  is  to  be  pitied  of  the  specialists  who 
concern  themselves  solely  with  the  inscriptions  it 
may  bear. 

Let  us  now  proceed  to  study  in  what  respect  arts 
are  the  expression  of  the  mental  constitution  of  a 
people,  and  what  are  the  transformations  they  under- 
go in  passing  from  one  civilisation  to  another. 


102  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

In  this  inquiry,  I  shall  consider  only  the  Eastern 
arts.  The  genesis  and  the  transformation  of  the 
European  arts  have  been  subjected  to  identical  laws  ; 
but  to  follow  their  evolution  among  the  various  races 
it  would  be  necessary  to  enter  into  details  which  would 
be  beyond  the  very  restricted  scope  of  this  work. 

Let  us  take,  to  begin  with,  the  arts  of  Egypt,  and 
examine  the  destiny  that  awaited  them  among  three 
different  races  among  which  they  were  successively 
transplanted  :  the  negroes  of  Ethiopia,  the  Greeks, 
and  the  Persians. 

Of  all  the  civilisations  that  have  flourished  on  the 
globe,  that  of  Egypt  has  found  the  most  complete 
expression  in  the  arts.  It  is  expressed  therein  with 
such  force  and  clearness  that  the  artistic  types  that 
saw  the  light  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  could  only  be 
suitable  to  the  Egyptians,  and  were  not  adopted  by 
other  peoples  until  they  had  been  considerably  trans- 
formed. 

The  Egyptian  arts,  and  more  especially  the  Egyp- 
tian architecture,  were  the  outcome  of  an  ideal, 
peculiar  to  the  race,  which  for  fifty  centuries  was  the 
constant  pre-occupation  of  an  entire  people.  The 
dream  of  the  Egyptians  was  to  create  for  man  an 
imperishable  dwelling  in  contrast  with  his  ephemeral 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          103 

existence.  This  race,  unlike,  in  this  respect,  to  all  other 
races,  despised  life,  and  courted  death.  What  inte- 
rested it  more  than  anything  else  was  the  motionless 
mummy  which,  its  eyes  of  enamel  incrusted  in  its 
golden  mask,  gazed  eternally,  from  the  depths  of  its 
gloomy  resting  place,  on  mysterious  hieroglyphics. 
Guarded  in  its  sepulchral  dwelling,  vast  as  a  palace, 
against  all  profanation,  the  mummy  was  surrounded 
on  the  painted  and  sculptured  walls  of  endless 
corridors  by  all  that  had  charmed  it  during  its  brief 
terrestial  existence. 

Egyptian  architecture  is  more  especially  a  funereal 
and  religious  architecture,  having  more  or  less  for  its 
object  the  mummy  and  the  Gods.  For  them  it  is 
that  the  subterranean  vaults  were  excavated,  that  the 
obelisks,  the  pylones,  and  the  pyramids  were  raised, 
and  for  them  that  the  pensive  giants  reclined  on 
their  thrones  of  stone  in  a  pose  so  majestic  and  so 
harmonious. 

Everything  about  this  architecture  is  stable  and 
massive  because  it  aimed  at  being  eternal.  If  the 
Egyptians  were  the  only  people  ot  antiquity  with 
which  we  were  acquainted,  it  could  indeed  be  said 
that  art  is  the  most  faithful  expression  of  the  soul 
of  the  race  of  which  it  is  the  creation. 


104  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

Peoples  differing  widely  from  one  another — the 
Ethiopians,  an  ^inferior  race  ;  the  Greeks  and  the 
Persians,  superior  races — have  borrowed  their  arts 
either  from  Egypt  alone,  or  from  Egypt  and  Assyria. 
Let  us  see  what  they  became  in  their  hands. 

Let  us  deal,  to  begin  with,  with  the  inferior  people 
we  have  just  mentioned — with  the  Ethiopians. 

It  is  known  that  at  a  late  period  in  Egyptian 
history  (that  of  the  twenty-fourth  dynasty),  the 
peoples  of  the  Soudan,  taking  advantage  of  the 
anarchy  and  decadence  of  Egypt,  seized  some  of 
its  provinces  and  founded  a  kingdom  which,  having 
Napata  and  Meroe  successively  for  its  capital,  main- 
tained its  independence  for  several  centuries.  Dazzled 
by  the  civilisation  of  the  vanquished  people,  they 
endeavoured  to  copy  their  monuments  and  arts  ;  but 
these  copies,  of  which  we  possess  specimens,  are  for 
the  most  part  but  very  rude  efforts.  These  negroes 
were  barbarians,  condemned  by  their  mental  inferiority 
never  to  shake  off  their  barbarism  :  and  in  spite  of  the 
civilising  influence  of  the  Egyptians,  it  is  a  fact  that 
they  never  did  shake  it  off.  There  is  no  example  in 
ancient  or  modern  history  of  a  negro  people  having 
reached  a  certain  level  of  civilisation  ;  and  on  every 
occasion  when  a  superior  civilisation,  by  one  of 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         105 

those  accidents  which  in  ancient  times  occurred  in 
Ethiopia,  and  in  modern  times  in  Haiti,  has  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  negro  race,  this  civilisation 
has  speedily  reverted  to  wretchedly  inferior  forms. 

Under  a  very  different  latitude,  another  race,  also 
barbarian  at  the  time,  but  a  white  race,  that  of  the 
Greeks,  borrowed  from  Egypt  and  Assyria  the  first 
models  of  its  arts  and  confined  itself  at  first  to 
making  crude  copies.  The  artistic  productions  of 
these  two  great  civilisations  were  furnished  the 
Greeks  by  the  Phoenicians,  who  were  masters  of  the 
sea  routes  that  connect  the  shores  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  by  the  peoples  of  Asia  Minor,  the  masters 
of  the  land  routes  that  lead  to  Nineveh  and  Babylon. 

Everbody  is  aware  how  immeasurably  the  Greeks 
surpassed  their  models  in  the  end.  The  discoveries 
of  modern  archaeology  have  shown,  however,  how 
rude  were  their  first  attempts,  and  that  they  required 
centuries  before  they  came  to  produce  the  master- 
pieces which  have  made  them  immortal.  The  Greeks 
devoted  some  seven  hundred  years  to  this  difficult 
task  of  converting  a  foreign  art  into  a  personal  and 
superior  art ;  but  the  progress  realised  during  the 
last  century  is  more  considerable  than  that  effected 
during  all  the  preceding  ages.  It  is  not  the  superior 


106  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

stages  of  civilisation,  but  the  inferior  stages  that  a 
people  finds  the  most  difficulty  in  surmounting.  The 
most  ancient  productions  of  Greek  art,  those  discovered 
at  Mycenae  and  belonging  to  the  twelfth  century  before 
our  era,  point  to  entirely  barbarian  efforts,  and  are 
rude  copies  of  Oriental  objects ;  six  centuries  later 
Greek  art  is  still  very  Oriental  ;  the  Apollo  of  Tenea 
and  the  Apollo  of  Orchomenes  bear  a  singular  resem- 
blance to  the  Egyptian  statues  ;  but  the  progress  now 
becomes  very  rapid,  and,  a  century  later,  we  reach 
Phidias  and  the  marvellous  statues  of  the  Parthenon — 
that  is  to  say,  an  art  that  has  thrown  off  the  influence 
of  the  East,  while  it  is  very  superior  to  the  models  to 
which  it  had  gone  so  long  for  inspiration. 

Architecture  followed  a  like  evolution,  though  its 
successive  steps  are  less  easily  established.  We  are 
ignorant  of  what  the  palaces  of  the  Homeric  poems, 
belonging  to  about  the  ninth  century  before  our  era, 
may  have  been  like ;  but  the  bronze  walls,  the 
pinnacles  brilliant  with  colour,  the  animals  in  gold 
and  silver  guarding  the  doors,  of  which  the  poet  tells 
us,  make  us  think  at  once  of  the  Assyrian  palaces 
covered  with  plates  of  bronze  and  enamelled  bricks, 
and  guarded  by  sculptured  bulls.  In  any  case,  we 
know  that  the  type  of  the  most  ancient  Greek  Doric 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         107 

columns,  which  seem  to  date  from  the  seventh  century, 
is  met  with  in  Egypt  at  Karnak  and  Beni- Hassan  ; 
that  several  of  the  details  of  the  Ionic  column  are 
borrowed  from  Assyria  ;  but  we  also  know  that  these 
foreign  elements,  to  some  extent  superimposed  at 
first,  then  blended,  and  finally  transformed,  gave  rise 
to  new  columns  very  different  from  their  primitive 
models. 

At  another  extremity  of  the  ancient  world,  Persia 
will  offer  us  the  example  of  an  analogous  adoption 
and  evolution,  though  of  an  evolution  that  remained 
incomplete,  because  it  was  suddenly  interrupted  by 
foreign  conquest.  Persia  did  not  have  seven  cen- 
turies, as  Greece  did,  but  only  two  hundred  years,  in 
which  to  create  an  art.  So  far  only  one  people,  the 
Arabs,  has  been  successful  in  giving  birth  to  a  personal 
art  in  so  short  a  time. 

The  history  of  Persian  civilisation  scarcely  begins 
before  Cyrus  and  his  successors,  who  succeeded,  five 
centuries  before  our  era,  in  taking  possession  of 
Babylon  and  Egypt,  that  is  of  the  two  great  cities  of 
civilisation,  whose  glory  illumined  at  the  time  the 
Eastern  world.  The  Greeks,  who  were  to  wield  the 
supremacy  in  their  turn,  did  not  count  as  yet. 
The  Persian  empire  became  the  centre  of  civilisa- 


io8  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

tion  until,  three  centuries  before  our  era,  it  was  over- 
thrown by  Alexander,  whose  conquest  at  once 
removed  elsewhere  the  centre  of  the  civilisation  of 
the  world.  Without  an  art  of  their  own,  the  Persians, 
when  they  had  possessed  themselves  of  Egypt  and 
Babylon,  borrowed  artists  and  models  from  the 
conquered  countries.  Their  empire  having  lasted 
but  two  centuries,  they  did  not  have  time  to  modify 
these  arts  profoundly,  but  at  the  moment  of  their 
overthrow  they  had  already  begun  to  transform  them. 
The  ruins  of  Persepolis,  which  are  still  standing, 
acquaint  us  with  the  genesis  of  these  transformations. 
We  doubtless  meet  in  them  with  the  fusion,  or  rather 
with  the  superposition,  of  the  arts  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria,  mingled  with  some  Greek  elements ;  but 
new  elements,  notably  the  lofty  Persepolitan  column 
with  its  bicephalous  capitals,  are  already  present,  and 
authorise  the  belief  that  if  the  Persians  had  disposed 
of  a  longer  interval  of  time,  this  superior  race  would 
have  created  an  art  as  personal,  if  not  as  lofty,  as  that 
of  the  Greeks. 

This  supposition  is  supported  by  an  examination  of 
the  monuments  of  Persia  dating  from  a  period  ten 
centuries  later.  To  the  dynasty  of  the  Achaemenides, 
overthrown  by  Alexander,  succeeded  that  of  the 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          109 

Seleucides,  then  that  of  the  Arsacides,  and  finally 
that  of  the  Sassanides,  overthrown  in  the  seventh 
century  by  the  Arabs.  With  the  advent  of  these 
latter  conquerors,  Persia  acquires  a  new  architecture, 
and  when  it  again  raises  monuments  they  offer  an 
incontestable  imprint  of  originality,  the  result  of  a 
combination  of  Arabian  art  with  the  ancient  archi- 
tecture of  the  Achsemenides,  modified  by  its  com- 
bination with  the  somewhat  Grecian  art  of  the 
Arsacides  (gigantic  doorways  taking  in  the  entire 
height  of  the  fagade,  enamelled  bricks,  ogival 
arcades,  etc.).  It  was  this  new  art  that  the  Mongols 
were  to  transport  into  India  and  to  modify  in  their 
turn. 

In  the  preceding  examples  we  see  the  varying 
degrees  of  transformation  which  a  people  can  effect 
in  the  arts  of  another  people,  according  to  the  race 
and  to  the  time  it  has  been  able  to  devote  to  this 
transformation. 

In  the  case  of  an  inferior  race,  the  /Ethiopians, 
although  it  had  centuries  at  its  disposal,  we  have 
seen  that  the  borrowed  art  was  made  to  return  to  an 
inferior  form,  the  race  being  endowed  with  insufficient 
brain  capacity.  In  the  case  of  a  race  both  superior 
and  with  centuries  in  which  to  operate,  we  have 


no       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

observed  a  complete  transformation  of  the  ancient 
art  into  a  new  and  very  superior  art.  In  the  case  of 
another  race,  the  Persians,  not  ranking  so  high  as 
the  Greeks,  and  who  were  limited  in  the  matter 
of  time,  we  have  merely  encountered  great  skill 
of  adaptation  and  the  beginnings  of  a  transforma- 
tion. 

Apart,  however,  from  the  examples,  most  of  them 
distant,  which  we  have  just  cited,  there  are  many 
others  more  modern,  of  which  the  specimens  are  still 
standing,  and  which  show  the  magnitude  of  the  trans- 
formations a  race  is  compelled  to  effect  in  the  arts  it 
borrows.  These  examples  are  the  more  typical,  in 
that  they  are  furnished  by  peoples  professing  the  same 
religion  but  of  different  origin.  I  refer  to  the  Mussul- 
mans. 

When  the  Arabs  possessed  themselves  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  old  world  in  the  seventh  century 
of  our  era,  and  founded  the  gigantic  empire  which 
soon  stretched  from  Spain  to  the  centre  of  Asia  and 
included  the  north  of  Africa,  they  found  themselves 
in  presence  of  a  clearly  defined  architecture  :  the 
Byzantine  architecture.  At  first  they  simply  adopted 
it  for  the  edification  of  their  mosques  both  in  Spain, 
Egypt,  and  Syria.  The  mosque  of  Omar  at  Jeru- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          in 

salem,  that  of  Amrou  at  Cairo,  and  other  monuments 
still  standing  show  us  this  adoption.  However,  it 
did  not  last  long,  and  in  the  various  countries  the 
monuments  are  seen  to  be  transformed  from  century 
to  century.  We  have  shown  the  genesis  of  these 
changes  in  our  "  History  of  the  Civilisation  of  the 
Arabs."  They  are  so  considerable,  that  there  is  no 
trace  of  resemblance  between  a  monument  of  the 
early  years  of  the  conquest,  such  as  the  mosque  of 
Amrou  at  Cairo  (742),  and  one  of  the  close  of  the 
great  Arabian  period,  such  as  the  mosque  of  Kait- 
Bey  (1468).  We  have  shown  in  our  explanations  and 
diagrams  that,  in  the  different  countries  subjected  to 
the  rule  of  Islam — Spain,  Africa,  Syria,  Persia, 
India — the  monuments  present  differences  so  con- 
siderable that  it  is  really  impossible  to  class  them 
under  the  same  denomination,  as  can  be  done,  for 
example,  in  the  case  of  the  Gothic  monuments  which, 
in  spite  of  their  varieties,  offer  evident  analogies. 

These  radical  differences  in  the  architecture  of 
the  Mussulman  countries  cannot  be  the  result  of 
diversity  of  beliefs,  since  the  religion  is  the  same ;  it 
is  the  result  of  racial  divergencies  whose  influence 
on  the  evolution  of  the  arts  is  as  profound  as  it  is  on 
the  destinies  of  empires. 


ii2  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

If  this  assertion  is  exact,  we  ought  to  expect  to 
find  very  dissimilar  monuments  in  a  country  inhabited 
by  different  races,  even  in  the  face  of  identical  beliefs 
and  unity  of  political  domination.  This  is  precisely 
the  phenomenon  that  is  observed  in  India.  It  is  in 
India  that  it  is  easiest  to  find  examples  in  support 
of  the  general  principles  set  forth  in  this  work,  and  it 
is  for  this  reason  that  I  am  always  referring  to  the 
great  peninsular,  which  constitutes  the  most  suggestive 
and  the  most  philosophic  of  books  of  history.  At 
the  present  day  it  is  the  only  country  in  which,  merely 
by  travelling  from  one  spot  to  another,  it  is  possible 
to  go  from  age  to  age  and  to  gaze  on  the  still  existing 
series  of  successive  stages  which  humanity  has  had 
to  traverse  to  reach  the  higher  levels  of  civilisation. 
All  the  forms  of  evolution  are  met  with  in  India:  the 
stone  age  has  its  representatives  there,  and  so  too  has 
the  age  of  electricity  and  steam.  Nowhere  can  a 
better  view  be  obtained  of  those  great  factors  which 
preside  over  the  genesis  and  evolution  of  civilisa- 
tions. 

It  is  by  applying  the  principles  developed  in  the 
present  work  that  I  have  attempted  to  solve  a 
problem  to  which  the  key  has  long  been  sought : 
the  origin  of  the  arts  of  India,  The  subject  being 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          113 

very  little  known  and  constituting  an  interesting 
application  of  our  ideas  on  the  psychology  of  races, 
we  shall  here  sum  up  its  most  essential  lines.1 

As  regards  the  arts,  India  does  not  make  its 
appearance  in  history  until  very  late.  Its  oldest 
monuments,  such  as  the  columns  of  Asoka,  the 
temples  of  Karli,  Bharhut,  Sanchi,  etc.,  scarcely  date 
further  back  than  two  centuries  before  our  era. 
When  they  were  constructed  the  majority  of  the 
old  civilisations  of  the  ancient  world,  those  of  Egypt, 
Persia,  and  Assyria,  even  that  of  Greece  itself,  had 
terminated  their  cycle  and  entered  the  night  of 
decadence.  A  single  civilisation,  that  of  Rome,  had 
replaced  all  the  others.  The  world  knew  but  one 
master. 

India,  which  emerged  so  tardily  from  the  shadows 
of  history,  was  in  a  position  then  to  borrow  much 
from  anterior  civilisations.  The  profound  isolation, 
however,  in  which  it  was  formerly  admitted  the 
country  had  always  lived,  and  the  astonishing 
originality  of  its  monuments,  which  possess  no  visible 

1  For  technical  details  which  cannot  even  be  touched  on  here  I  shall 
refer  the  reader  to  my  work,  Les  Monuments  de  flnde^  one  vol.  in  folio, 
illustrated  by  four  hundred  plates  from  my  own  photographs,  plans,  and 
drawings  (Didot).  Many  of  these  plates  are  given  on  a  reduced  scale 
in  my  work  Les  Civilisations  dans  F  Inde,  4to,  800  pages. 

9 


n4  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

relationship  with  any  of  those  that  had  preceded 
them,  long  resulted  in  the  hypothesis  of  borrowings 
from  abroad  being  set  aside. 

Side  by  side  with  their  indisputable  originality,  the 
early  Indian  monuments  display  a  superiority  of 
execution  which  they  were  not  destined  to  surpass 
in  the  lapse  of  centuries.  Works  of  so  high  a  degree 
of  perfection  had  doubtless  been  preceded  by  long 
anterior  tentative  efforts  ;  and  yet,  in  spite  of  the 
most  minute  researches,  no  monument  of  an  inferior 
order  revealed  the  trace  of  these  efforts. 

The  recent  discovery,  in  certain  isolated  regions 
of  the  north-west  of  the  peninsular,  of  debris  of 
statues  and  monuments  clearly  revealing  Greek 
influences,  had  ended  by  inducing  Indian  antiquarians 
to  believe  that  India  had  borrowed  its  arts  from 
Greece. 

The  application  of  the  principles  set  forth  above 
and  the  most  careful  study  of  the  majority  of  the 
monuments  still  existing  in  India  have  led  us  to 
quite  a  different  conclusion.  India,  in  our  opinion,  in 
spite  of  its  accidental  contact  with  Greek  civilisation, 
borrowed  none  of  its  arts  from  Greece  and  could  not 
borrow  any  of  them  from  this  source.  The  differences 
between  the  two  races  were  too  great,  their  thought 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          115 

was  too  unlike,  their  artistic  geniuses  were  too  incom- 
patible for  them  to  have  influenced  one  another. 

The  examination  of  the  ancient  monuments 
scattered  over  India  shows,  moreover,  immediately 
that  there  is  no  relationship  between  its  arts  and 
those  of  Greece.  Whereas  our  European  monuments 
are  full  of  elements  borrowed  from  Grecian  art,  the 
monuments  of  India  present  absolutely  no  such 
elements.  The  most  superficial  study  proves  that  we 
are  in  presence  of  extremely  different  races,  and  that 
geniuses  more  unlike — I  would  even  say  more  anti- 
pathetic— have  never  perhaps  existed  than  the  Greek 
genius  and  the  Hindu  genius. 

This  general  notion  is  merely  accentuated  when  a 
more  thorough  and  penetrating  study  is  made  of  the 
monuments  of  India  and  of  the  inner  psychology  of 
the  peoples  that  created  them.     It  is  soon  observed 
that  the  Hindu  genius  is  too  personal  for  it  to  undergo 
a   foreign    influence   at   variance   with    its    thought 
Doubtless  such  a  foreign   influence   can  be  imposed 
by  force ;  but  however  long  it  may  be  supposed  to 
last,  it  remains  exceedingly  superficial  and  transitory. 
It  would  seem  as  if  between  the  mental  constitution 
of  the  peoples  of  India  and  that  of  other  peoples, 
there    were    barriers    as    great    as    the    formidable 


n6  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

obstacles  created  by  nature  between  the  great 
peninsula  and  the  other  countries  of  the  globe. 
The  Hindu  genius  is  so  specific  that,  whatever  be  the 
object  necessity  obliges  it  to  imitate,  the  object  is 
immediately  transformed  and  becomes  Hindu.  Even 
in  architecture,  where  it  is  nevertheless  difficult  to 
conceal  borrowings,  the  personality  of  this  strange 
genius,  this  faculty  of  rapid  modification  is  quick  to 
reveal  itself.  It  is  possible,  no  doubt,  to  make  a 
Hindu  architect  copy  a  Greek  column,  but  he  will 
not  be  prevented  from  transforming  it  rapidly  into  a 
column  which  at  first  sight  will  be  said  to  be  Hindu. 
Even  at  the  present  day,  though  European  influence  is 
now  so  powerful  in  India,  such  transformations  are 
daily  observable.  If  a  Hindu  artist  be  given  any 
European  model  to  copy,  he  will  adopt  its  general 
form,  but  he  will  exaggerate  certain  parts,  and 
multiply  and  disfigure  the  ornamental  details,  so 
that  the  second  or  third  copy  will  have  dropped  all 
the  Western  characteristics  and  will  have  become 
exclusively  Hindu. 

The  fundamental  characteristic  of  Hindu  archi- 
tecture— a  characteristic  also  found  in  Hindu  litera- 
ture, which  for  this  reason  is  closely  allied  to  Hindu 
architecture — is  an  overflowing  exaggeration,  an 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         117 

infinite  richness  of  detail,  a  complexity  which  is  the 
very  antipodes  of  the  correct  and  severe  simplicity  of 
Grecian  art.  It  is  more  especially  in  studying  the  arts 
of  India  that  it  is  understood  to  what  an  extent  the 
plastic  works  of  a  race  are  often  allied  to  its  mental 
constitution,  and  constitute  the  clearest  of  languages 
for  those  who  know  how  to  interpret  them.  If 
the  Hindus,  like  the  Assyrians,  had  entirely  dis- 
appeared from  history,  the  bas-reliefs  of  their 
temples,  their  statues,  their  monuments  would  suffice 
to  reveal  to  us  their  past.  What  they  would  tell  us 
in  particular  is  that  the  clear  and  methodic  genius  of 
the  Greeks  had  never  been  able  to  exercise  the  slightest 
influence  on  the  overflowing  and  unmethodical  imagi- 
nation of  the  Hindus.  They  would  also  make  us 
understand  why  Grecian  influence  in  India  could 
never  be  other  than  transitory  and  was  always 
limited  to  the  region  in  which  it  was  momentarily 
imposed  by  force. 

The  study  from  an  archaeological  point  of  view  of 
the  monuments  of  India  has  enabled  us  to  confirm  by 
precise  documents  what  is  revealed  immediately  by 
a  general  knowledge  of  India  and  the  Hindu  genius. 
It  has  enabled  us  to  establish  the  curious  fact  that, 
on  several  occasions,  notably  during  the  first  two  cen- 


n8       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

turies  of  our  era,  the  Hindu  sovereigns  in  communi- 
cation with  the  Arsacides  dynasty  of  Persia,  whose 
civilisation  bore  a  strong  Grecian  impress,  desired  to 
introduce  Grecian  art  into  India,  but  never  succeeded 
in  making  it  take  root. 

This  borrowed  and  wholly  official  art,  which  bore 
no  relation  to  the  thought  of  the  people  among  whom 
it  had  been  introduced,  always  disappeared  with  the 
political  influences  that  had  given  birth  to  it.  More- 
over it  was  too  antipathetic  to  the  Hindu  genius  to 
have  exerted  any  influence  on  the  national  art  even 
during  the  period  during  which  it  was  imposed  by 
force.  No  traces  of  Greek  influence  are  found  in  the 
contemporary  or  posterior  Hindu  monuments,  in  the 
subterranean  temples  for  example.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  would  be  far  too  easily  discerned  for  it  to  be 
possible  to  pass  them  over.  Apart  from  the  general 
aspect  which  is  always  characteristic,  there  are  tech- 
nical details,  the  treatment  of  the  draperies  in  par- 
ticular, which  at  once  reveal  the  hand  of  a  Greek 
artist. 

The  disappearance  of  Greek  art  in  India  was  as 
sudden  as  its  apparition,  and  this  very  suddenness 
shows  how  entirely  it  was  an  imported  art,  officially 
imposed  but  without  affinity  with  the  people  that 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         119 

had  been  obliged  to  accept  it.  Arts  never  disappear 
in  this  way  from  amongst  a  people  ;  they  transform 
themselves,  and  the  new  art  always  borrows  some- 
thing from  that  of  which  it  has  taken  the  place. 
After  suddenly  appearing  in  India,  Greek  art  as 
suddenly  disappeared  without  exerting  any  influence 
whatever,  exactly  as  has  been  the  case  with  the 
European  monuments  erected  in  the  country  by  the 
English  during  the  past  two  centuries. 

The  fact  that  at  the  present  day  the  European  arts 
exert  no  influence  in  India  may  be  compared  with 
the  exceeding  slightness  of  the  influence  of  the  Greek 
arts  there  eighteen  centuries  ago.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  we  have  here  a  case  of  incompatibility 
of  aesthetic  sentiments,  for  the  Mussulman  arts, 
although  quite  as  foreign  to  India  as  the  European 
arts,  have  been  imitated  throughout  the  peninsula. 
Even  in  those  parts  of  the  country  where  the  Mus- 
sulmans have  never  exercised  any  power,  it  is  rare  to 
come  across  a  temple  that  does  not  contain  some 
traces  of  Arabian  ornamentation.  Doubtless,  as  in 
the  distant  times  of  King  Kanishka,  we  see  rajahs 
at  the  present  day,  such  as  the  Rajah  of  Gwalior, 
attracted  by  the  might  of  the  foreigners,  build  them- 
selves European  palaces  in  the  Greco-Latin  style, 


i 


120  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

but — again  as  in  the  time  of  Kanishka — this  official 
art,  superposed  on  the  indigenous  art,  is  totally 
without  influence  on  the  latter. 

Greek  and  Hindu  art,  then,  formerly  existed  side 
by  side,  like  European  art  and  Hindu  art  at  the 
present  day,  but  without  ever  influencing  one 
another.  So  far  as  the  monuments  of  India  properly 
so  called  are  concerned,  there  is  not  one  of  them 
of  which  it  can  be  said  that  it  offers,  either  in  its 
general  aspect  or  in  its  details,  any  resemblance 
whatever,  however  remote,  with  a  Greek  monu- 
ment. 

This  powerlessness  of  Grecian  art  to  implant  itself 
in  India  is  striking,  and  it  must  needs  be  attributed  to 
the  incompatibility  we  have  pointed  out  between  the 
soul  of  the  two  races,  and  not  to  a  sort  of  incapacity 
native  to  India  to  assimilate  a  foreign  art,  for  the 
country  has  shown  itself  perfectly  able  to  assimilate 
and  transform  the  arts  that  corresponded  to  its 
mental  constitution. 

The  archaeological  documents  that  we  have  been 
able  to  collect  show  that  Persia  was  the  source  from 
which  India  derived  its  arts  ;  not  the  slightly 
Hellenised  Persia  of  the  time  of  the  Arsacides,  but 
the  Persia  that  had  inherited  the  old  civilisations 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         121 

of  Egypt  and  Assyria.  It  is  known  that  when 
Alexander  overthrew  the  dynasty  of  the  Achae- 
menides,  330  B.C.,  the  Persians  had  already  been  in 
possession  for  two  centuries  of  a  brilliant  civilisation. 
Doubtless  they  had  not  discovered  the  formula  of 
a  new  art,  but  the  mixture  of  the  arts  of  Egypt  and 
Assyria  which  they  had  inherited  had  produced 
remarkable  works.  We  can  judge  them  by  the  still 
existing  ruins  of  Persepolis,  which  show  us  by  their 
Egyptian  pylones,  their  Assyrian  winged  bulls,  and 
even  some  Grecian  elements,  that  all  the  arts  of  the 
great  anterior  civilisations  had  mingled  their  in- 
fluences in  this  limited  region  of  Asia. 

India,  then,  borrowed  its  arts  from  Persia,  but  it 
borrowed  them  in  reality  from  the  sources  to  which 
Persia  itself  had  gone,  from  Chaldaea  and  Egypt. 

The  study  of  the  monuments  of  India  reveals  the 
borrowings  on  which  they  lived  originally,  but  to 
establish  these  borrowings  the  most  ancient  monu- 
ments must  be  examined,  for  the  Hindu  genius  is 
so  specific,  that  the  borrowed  elements,  in  order  to 
adapt  themselves  to  it,  undergo  such  transformations 
that  they  soon  become  unrecognisable. 

Why  is  it  that  India,  which  has  shown  itself  so 
incapable  of  borrowing  anything  whatever  from 


122  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

Greece,  has  shown  itself,  on  the  contrary,  so  disposed 
to  borrow  from  Persia  ?  The  reason  evidently  is 
that  the  Persian  arts  corresponded  to  its  mental 
structure,  whereas  there  was  no  such  correspondence 
in  the  case  of  the  arts  of  Greece.  The  simple  forms 
and  the  sparely  ornamented  surfaces  of  the  Grecian 
monuments  could  not  appeal  to  the  Hindu  genius, 
which  was  attracted,  on  the  contrary,  by  the  com- 
plicated forms,  the  exuberant  decoration,  and  the 
wealth  of  ornament  of  the  Persian  monuments. 

Moreover,  it  is  not  solely  at  this  distant  epoch, 
anterior  to  our  era,  that  Persia,  representing  Egypt 
and  Assyria,  exerted  an  influence  on  India  by  its 
arts.  When,  many  centuries  later,  the  Mussulmans 
appeared  in  the  peninsula,  their  civilisation,  during 
its  passage  through  Persia,  had  been  deeply  imbued 
with  Persian  elements ;  and  it  brought  to  India  in 
reality  a  Persian  art  still  bearing  traces  of  those  old 
Assyrian  traditions  which  had  been  continued  by 
the  dynasty  of  Achsemenides.  The  gigantic  door- 
ways of  the  mosques,  and  especially  the  enamelled 
bricks  with  which  the  mosques  are  lined  externally, 
are  vestiges  of  the  Chaldseo-Assyrian  civilisation. 
India  was  able  to  assimilate  these  arts  so  well, 
because  they  were  in  accordance  with  the  genius  of 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         123 

its  race ;  whereas  Greek  art  in  the  past  and  European 
art  at  the  present  day,  being  utterly  opposed  to  its 
mode  of  thinking  and  feeling,  have  always  remained 
without  influence  on  the  national  productions. 

It  is  not,  then,  with  Greece,  as  the  archaeologists 
still  maintain,  but  with  Egypt  and  Assyria — through 
the  medium  of  Persia — that  India  is  linked.  India 
has  borrowed  nothing  from  Greece,  but  both  have 
gone  to  the  same  sources,  to  that  common  treasure, 
the  foundation  of  all  civilisations,  brought  into  being 
in  the  course  of  centuries  by  the  peoples  of  Egypt 
and  Chaldaea.  The  borrowings  of  Greece  were 
effected  through  the  medium  of  the  Phoenicians  and 
of  the  peoples  of  Asia  Minor  ;  those  of  India  through 
the  medium  of  Persia.  The  civilisations  of  Greece 
and  India  hark  back  in  this  way  to  a  common 
source  ;  but  the  currents  that  issued  from  this  source 
in  the  two  countries  speedily  took  very  different 
directions,  in  harmony  with  the  genius  of  either  race. 

If,  however,  as  we  have  asserted,  the  art  of  a  race 
is  in  close  correspondence  with  its  mental  constitu- 
tion, and  if  for  this  reason  the  same  art  borrowed  by 
dissimilar  races  at  once  assumes  very  different  forms, 
we  should  expect  to  find  that  India,  a  country 
inhabited  by  a  great  variety  of  races,  is  in  posses- 


124  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

sion  of  very  different  arts,  and  of  styles  of  archi- 
tecture that  bear  no  resemblance  to  one  another,  in 
spite  of  the  identity  of  beliefs. 

An  examination  of  the  monuments  of  the  different 
regions  of  India  shows  how  entirely  this  is  the  case. 
Indeed,  the  differences  between  the  monuments  are 
so  profound,  that  the  only  classification  of  the  monu- 
ments we  have  been  able  to  make  is  based  on  regions, 
that  is  on  racial  distinctions,  and  is  quite  independent 
of  the  religion  to  which  the  peoples  who  have  con- 
structed them  have  belonged.  There  is  no  analogy 
between  the  monuments  of  the  north  of  India  and 
those  of  the  south,  constructed  though  they  were  at  the 
same  period  by  peoples  professing  a  similar  religion. 
Even  during  the  Mussulman  domination,  at  a  period, 
that  is,  when  the  political  unity  of  India  was  most 
complete,  and  the  influence  of  the  central  authority 
at  its  maximum,  the  purely  Mussulman  monuments 
present  profound  differences  according  to  the  region 
in  which  they  are  found.  The  mosques  of  Ahmeda- 
bad,  Lahore,  Agra,  or  Bijapour,  although  devoted 
to  the  same  cult,  offer  but  a  very  slight  relationship, 
a  much  slighter  relationship  than  that  which  connects 
a  monument  of  the  Renaissance  with  those  of  the 
Gothic  period. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          125 

It  is  not  architecture  only  that  varies  in  India 
according  to  the  race  ;  the  statuary  also  varies  with 
the  different  regions,  not  merely  as  regards  the  types 
represented,  but  especially  in  respect  to  the  way  in 
which  they  are  treated.  If  the  bas-reliefs  or  the 
statues  of  Sanchi  be  compared  with  those  of  Bharhut, 
with  which  they  are  nevertheless  contemporary,  the 
difference  is  already  manifest.  It  is  plainer  still  when 
the  statues  and  bas-reliefs  of  the  province  of  Orissa 
are  compared  with  those  of  Bundelkund,  or,  again, 
the  statues  of  Mysore  with  those  of  the  great  pagodas 
of  the  South  of  India.  The  influence  of  race  is 
everywhere  apparent.  It  is  seen,  moreover,  in  the 
most  trifling  artistic  productions,  which,  as  everybody 
is  aware,  differ  immensely  in  India  from  one  region 
to  another.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be  very  expert  to 
distinguish  between  a  coffer  in  carved  wood  of 
Mysore  workmanship  and  a  coffer  that  hails  from 
the  Guzrat  district,  or  between  a  jewel  from  the 
province  of  Orissa  and  a  jewel  from  that  of  Bombay. 

Doubtless  the  architecture  of  India,  like  all 
Oriental  architecture,  is  principally  religious ;  but 
however  great  religious  influence  may  be,  especially 
in  the  East,  the  influence  of  race  is  much  more 
considerable. 


126  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

This  soul  of  the  race,  which  guides  the  destinies  of 
peoples,  determines  as  well  their  beliefs,  institutions, 
and  arts ;  whatever  be  the  element  of  civilisation 
under  consideration,  its  action  is  always  perceptible. 
It  is  the  only  force  against  which  no  other  force 
can  prevail.  It  represents  the  dead  weight  of 
thousands  of  generations,  the  synthesis  of  their 
thought. 


BOOK   III 

THE  HISTORY  OF  PEOPLES  CONSIDERED  AS  A 
CONSEQUENCE   OF  THEIR  CHARACTER 


BOOK    III 

THE  HISTORY  OF  PEOPLES  CONSIDERED  AS  A 
CONSEQUENCE  OF  THEIR  CHARACTER 


CHAPTER  I 

HOW  THE   SOUL  OF   PEOPLES   IS   RESPONSIBLE    FOR 
THEIR   INSTITUTIONS 

The  history  of  a  people  is  always  determined  by  its  mental  constitution — 
Various  examples — How  the  political  institutions  of  France  are 
the  outcome  of  the  soul  of  the  race — Their  real  invariability  beneath 
their  apparent  variability  —  Our  most  different  political  parties 
pursue  identical  political  ends  under  different  names — Their  ideal 
is  always  centralisation  and  the  destruction  of  individual  initiative 
to  the  profit  of  the  State — How  the  French  Revolution  merely 
executed  the  programme  of  the  old  monarchy — Contrast  between 
the  ideal  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  and  the  Latin  ideal — The 
initiative  of  the  citizen  substituted  for  the  initiative  of  the  State — 
Peoples'  institutions  are  always  the  outcome  of  their  character. 

HISTORY  in  its  main  lines  may  be  regarded  as 
the  mere  statement  of  the  results  engendered 
by   the   psychological   constitution   of  races.      It   is 
determined  by  this  constitution,  just  as  the  respira- 

10  129 


1 30       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

tory  organs  of  fish  are  determined  by  their  aquatic 
life.  In  the  absence  of  a  preliminary  knowledge  of 
the  mental  constitution  of  a  people,  its  history  appears 
a  chaos  of  events  governed  by  hazard.  On  the 
contrary,  when  we  are  acquainted  with  the  soul  of 
a  people,  its  life  is  seen  to  be  the  regular  and  inevit- 
able consequence  of  its  psychological  characteristics. 
In  all  the  manifestations  of  the  life  of  a  people,  we 
always  find  the  unchangeable  soul  of  the  race  weaving 
itself  its  own  destiny. 

It  is  more  especially  in  political  institutions  that 
the  sovereign  power  of  the  soul  of  the  race  manifests 
itself  the  most  visibly.  It  will  be  easy  for  us  to 
prove  this  statement  by  a  few  examples. 

Let  us,  to  start  with,  take  France,  that  is  one  of 
the  countries  of  the  world  which  has  been  subjected 
to  the  most  profound  upheavals,  a  country  in  which 
in  a  few  years  the  political  institutions  seem  to  have 
changed  most  radically,  in  which  the  parties  seem 
the  most  divergent.  If  we  consider  from  the  psycho- 
logical point  of  view  these  apparently  so  dissimilar 
opinions,  these  perpetually  struggling  parties,  we 
note  that  they  possess  in  reality  a  perfectly  identical 
common  substratum  which  exactly  represents  the 
ideal  of  our  race.  Intransigeants,  Radicals,  Monarch- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         131 

ists,  Socialists,  in  a  word  all  the  champions  of  the 
most  diverse  doctrines,  pursue,  though  they  give 
themselves  different  names,  an  absolutely  identical 
end  :  the  absorption  of  the  individual  by  the  State. 
What  they  all  of  them  desire  with  a  like  ardour  is 
the  old  centralised  and  Caesarian  regime,  the  State 
directing  everything,  ordaining  everything,  absorbing 
everything,  regulating  the  smallest  details  of  the  life 
of  the  citizens,  and  thus  freeing  them  from  the 
necessity  of  displaying  the  least  glimmer  of  reflection 
and  initiative.  Whether  the  authority  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  State  is  called  king,  emperor,  president, 
etc.,  is  of  no  importance ;  this  authority,  whatever  it 
be,  will  perforce  have  the  same  ideal,  and  this  ideal 
is  the  same  expression  of  the  sentiments  of  the  soul 
of  the  race.1  And  the  race  would  tolerate  no  other. 

While,  then,  our  extreme  excitability,  the  extreme 
ease  with  which  we  become  discontented  with  our 
surroundings,  the  idea  that  a  new  Government  will 
render  our  lot  happier,  lead  us  to  be  always  changing 
our  institutions,  the  mighty  voice  of  the  dead  which 

1  "  Such,"  writes  a  highly  judicious  observer,  Dupont  White,  "is  the 
singular  genius  of  France  :  the  character  of  the  people  precludes  its 
succeeding  in  certain  matters,  either  essential  or  desirable,  which  bear 
on  the  ornamental  or  fundamental  side  of  civilisation,  unless  it  be 
sustained  or  stimulated  in  the  enterprise  by  its  Government." 


132  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

guides  us  condemns  us  to  change  but  words  and 
appearances.  The  unconscious  power  of  the  soul  of 
our  race  is  such  that  we  do  not  even  perceive  the 
illusion  of  which  we  are  the  victims. 

Nothing  assuredly,  if  only  appearances  be  con- 
sidered, is  more  different  from  the  old  regime  than 
the  regime  created  by  the  Great  Revolution.  In 
reality,  however,  the  Revolution,  though  doubtless 
unawares,  did  no  more  than  continue  the  mon- 
archical tradition,  by  completing  the  work  of 
centralisation  begun  by  the  monarchy  centuries 
previously.  Were  Louis  XIII.  and  Louis  XIV.  to 
rise  from  their  tombs  to  judge  the  work  of  the 
Revolution,  they  would  doubtless  blame  some  of  the 
acts  of  violence  which  accompanied  its  realisation, 
but  they  would  consider  it  to  be  in  rigorous  con- 
formity with  their  tradition  and  their  programme, 
and  they  would  allow  that  a  minister  entrusted  with 
the  execution  of  this  programme  could  not  have 
carried  it  out  more  successfully.  They  would  declare 
that  the  least  revolutionary  government  France  has 
known  was  precisely  that  of  the  Revolution.  They 
would  further  note  that  none  of  the  various  regimes 
that  have  succeeded  one  another  in  France  for  a 
century  past  has  attempted  to  tamper  with  this 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         133 

work,  so  entirely  is  it  the  fruit  of  a  regular  evolu- 
tion, the  continuation  of  the  monarchical  ideal  and 
the  expression  of  the  genius  of  the  race.  Doubtless 
these  illustrious  phantoms,  in  consequence  of  their 
great  experience,  would  offer  some  criticisms,  would 
perhaps  remark,  for  example,  that  the  substitution 
of  an  administrative  caste  for  the  aristocratic  govern- 
ing caste  has  created  in  the  State  an  impersonal 
power  that  is  more  redoubtable  than  the  old 
nobility,  since  it  is  the  sole  power  which,  being  un- 
touched by  political  changes,  is  in  possession  of 
traditions  and  of  an  esprit  de  corps^  while  it  is  irre- 
sponsible and  perpetual — conditions  which  necessarily 
lead  to  its  becoming  the  sole  master.  However, 
they  would  not  dwell,  I  fancy,  to  any  great  extent 
on  this  objection,  for  they  would  be  mindful  of  the 
fact  that  the  Latin  peoples  care  very  little  for  liberty, 
but  a  great  deal  for  equality,  and  put  up  with  all 
despotisms  without  difficulty  provided  they  be  im- 
personal. Perhaps,  too,  they  would  consider  excessive 
and  very  tyrannical  the  innumerable  regulations,  the 
thousand  and  one  obligations  which  surround  at  the 
present  day  the  most  insignificant  acts  of  existence, 
and  they  would  perhaps  observe  that  when  the  State 
has  absorbed  everything,  regulated  everything,  and 


134  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPL 

despoiled  the  citizens  of  all  initiative,  we  shall  find 
ourselves  spontaneously,  and  without  any  fresh 
revolution,  involved  in  out  and  out  Socialism.  But 
at  this  stage  of  their  reflection,  die  divine  perspicacity 
that  enlightens  kings,  or,  in  its  absence,  the  mathe- 
matical principle  that  effects  increase  in  geometrical 
progression  when  their  causes  subsist,  win  allow 
them  to  perceive  that  Socialism  is  nothing  else  than 
the  ultimate  expression  of  the  monarchial  idea,  of 
which  die  Revolution  was  merely  an  accelerati ve  phase. 

Thus  it  is  that,  in  the  institutions  of  a  people 
meet  both  with  those  accidental  circumstances  referred 
to  in  the  beginning  of  this  work,  and  those  permanent 
laws  which  we  have  attempted  to  determine.  The 
accidental  circumstances  give  rise  to  the  names  and 
appearances.  The  fundamental  laws — and  the  most 
fundamental  of  them  arise  from  the  character  of 
peoples — create  the  destiny  of  nations. 

With  the  preceding  example,  we  may  contrast  that 
of  another  race,  the  English  race,  whose  psycho- 
logical constitution  is  very  different  from  our  own. 
Merely  in  consequence  of  this  :  lonstitutions 

are  radically  distinct  from  ours. 

Whether  the  English  have  at  their  head  a  mom 
as  in  England,  or  a  president  as  in  the  Unite 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         135 

their  government  will  always  present  the  same  funda- 
mental characteristics  :  the  action  of  the  State  will 
be  reduced  to  a  minimum  and  that  of  private 
individuals  carried  to  a  maximum,  a  state  of  things 
which  is  the  precise  contrary  of  the  Latin  ideal. 
Harbours,  canals,  railways,  educational  establish- 
ments, etc.,  will  always  be  created  and  kept  up  by 
the  initiative  of  private  individuals  and  never  by  that 
of  the  State.1  There  are  no  revolutions,  constitutions, 
or  despots  that  can  give  to  a  people  which  does  not 
possess  them,  or  take  from  a  people  which  does 
possess  them,  the  qualities  of  character  of  which  its 
institutions  are  the  outcome.  It  has  often  been  said 
that  peoples  have  the  governments  they  deserve.  Is 
it  conceivable  that  it  should  be  otherwise  ? 

We  shall  soon  show  by  other  examples  that  a 
people  does  not  escape  the  consequences  of  its 
mental  constitution  ;  or  that  if  it  throws  off  this 
influence  it  is  only  for  a  brief  moment,  as  the  sand 
swept  up  by  a  storm  seems  for  an  instant  to  be 
rebellious  to  the  laws  of  attraction.  It  is  a  childish 
chimera  to  believe  that  governments  and  constitu- 

1  This  preponderance  of  individual  initiative  should  more  especially 
be  observed  in  America.  It  has  singularly  decreased  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  in  England,  where  the  encroachments  of  the  State  are 
becoming  more  and  more  marked. 


136  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

tions  count  for  anything  in  the  destinies  of  a  people. 
The  destiny  of  a  people  lies  in  itself,  and  not  in 
exterior  circumstances.  All  that  can  be  asked  of  a 
government  is  that  it  shall  be  the  expression  of  the 
sentiments  and  ideas  of  the  people  it  is  called  on  to 
govern,  and  by  the  mere  fact  that  it  exists,  it  is 
the  image  of  the  people.  There  are  no  governments 
or  constitutions  of  which  it  can  be  said  that  they 
are  absolutely  good  or  absolutely  bad.  The  govern- 
ment of  the  King  of  Dahomey  was  probably  an 
excellent  government  for  the  people  he  was  called 
on  to  rule  over,  and  the  most  ingenious  European 
constitution  would  have  been  inferior  for  his  people. 
This  truth  is  unfortunately  ignored  by  statesmen 
who  imagine  that  a  mode  of  government  can  be 
exported,  and  that  colonies  can  be  governed  with 
the  institutions  of  a  metropolis.  It  would  be  as 
futile  to  wish  to  persuade  fish  to  live  in  the  air,  under 
the  pretext  that  aerial  respiration  is  practised  by  all 
the  superior  animals. 

By  the  mere  fact  of  the  diversity  of  their  mental 
constitution,  different  peoples  cannot  long  exist  under 
an  identical  regime.  The  Irish  and  the  English,  the 
Slav  and  the  Hungarian,  the  Arab  and  the  French- 
man, are  only  maintained  with  the  utmost  difficulty 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          137 

under  the  same  laws  and  at  the  cost  of  incessant 
revolutions.  Great  empires,  embracing  diverse  peoples, 
have  always  been  condemned  to  an  ephemeral 
existence.  When  they  have  endured  for  some  length 
of  time,  as  the  Mongolian  Empire  did,  or  as  that  of 
the  English  in  India  has  done,  it  is  on  the  one  hand 
because  the  races  in  contact  were  so  numerous,  so 
different,  and  in  consequence  separated  by  such 
rivalries  that  it  was  impossible  that  they  should  unite 
against  the  foreigner  ;  and  it  was  on  the  other  hand 
because  these  foreign  masters  have  had  a  sufficiently 
sure  political  instinct  to  respect  the  customs  of  the 
conquered  peoples  and  to  allow  them  to  live  under 
their  own  laws. 

Many  books  would  have  to  be  written,  indeed 
history  would  have  to  be  entirely  recast  and  con- 
sidered from  quite  a  new  standpoint,  if  it  were 
desired  to  show  all  the  consequences  of  the  psycho- 
logical constitution  of  peoples.  A  close  study  of  this 
constitution  ought  to  be  the  basis  of  politics  and 
education.  It  might  even  be  said  that  this  study 
would  avert  many  errors  and  many  upheavals,  if 
peoples  could  escape  the  fatalities  of  their  race,  if  the 
voice  of  reason  were  not  always  extinguished  by  the 
imperious  voice  of  the  dead. 


CHAPTER   II 

APPLICATION  OF  THE  PRECEDING  PRINCIPLES  TO 
THE  COMPARATIVE  STUDY  OF  THE  EVOLUTION 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA  AND 
OF  THE  SPANISH-AMERICAN  REPUBLICS 

The  English  character — How  the  American  soul  has  been  formed — 
Severity  of  the  selection  resulting  from  the  conditions  of  existence 
— Forced  disappearance  of  the  inferior  elements — The  negroes 
and  the  Chinese — Reasons  of  the  prosperity  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  decadence  of  the  Spanish-American  republics  in  spite  of 
identical  political  institutions — Inevitable  anarchy  of  the  Spanish- 
American  republics  as  a  consequence  of  the  inferiority  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  race. 


T 


HE  brief  considerations  which  precede  show 
that  the  institutions  of  a  people  are  the  expres- 
sion of  its  soul,  and  that  while  it  is  easy  for  a  people 
to  change  their  form  it  is  impossible  for  it  to  change 
their  essence.  We  are  now  going  to  show  by  very 

precise   examples   to  what  a  degree  the   soul   of  a 

138 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  139 

people  determines  its  destiny,  and  how  insignificant 
is  the  role  played  by  institutions  in  this  destiny.1 

I  shall  go  for  these  examples  to  a  country  in  which 
there  exist  side  by  side,  under  conditions  of  environ- 
ment but  slightly  different,  two  European  races 
equally  civilised  and  intelligent,  and  only  differing  as 
regards  their  character :  I  refer  to  America.  This 
continent  is  formed  by  two  distinct  continents  united 
by  an  isthmus.  The  superficies  of  each  of  these  con- 
tinents is  very  nearly  equal,  and  their  soil  not  at  all 
unlike.  One  of  them  has  been  conquered  and  peopled 
by  the  English,  the  other  by  the  Spanish  race.  These 
two  races  live  under  similar  republican  institutions, 
since  the  republics  of  South  America  have  always 
modelled  their  institutions  on  those  of  the  United 

1  The  illustrious  English  sociologist,  Herbert  Spencer,  had  neglected 
in  his  great  works  the  influence  of  the  character  of  peoples  on  their 
destinies,  and  his  admirable  theoretical  syntheses  had  led  him  at  first  to 
very  optimistic  conclusions.  Having  decided  as  he  became  older  to 
take  into  consideration  the  fundamental  role  of  character,  he  has  had  to 
modify  entirely  his  earlier  conclusions,  and  has  finally  been  brought  to 
substitute  for  them  extremely  pessimistic  conclusions.  We  find  them 
expressed  in  a  recently  published  discourse  on  Tyndall,  reprinted  in 
the  Revue  des  Revues.  Here  are  some  extracts  : 

"...  My  faith  in  free  institutions,  so  strong  to  begin  with,  has  con- 
siderably diminished  of  late  years.  .  .  .  We  are  going  back  to  the 
regime  of  the  iron  hand  represented  by  the  bureaucratic  despotism  of 
a  socialist  organisation,  and  then  by  the  military  despotism  which  will 
succeed  it,  supposing  this  latter  not  to  be  realised  suddenly  as  the  out- 
come of  some  acute  social  crisis. " 


140       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

States.  In  consequence,  to  explain  the  different 
destinies  of  these  peoples  we  have  nothing  to  go  on 
but  racial  differences.  Let  us  consider  the  results 
these  differences  have  produced. 

To  begin  with,  let  us  summarise  in  a  few  words  the 
characteristics  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  which  has 
peopled  the  United  States.  There  is  no  race,  perhaps, 
in  the  world  which  is  so  homogeneous,  and  whose 
mental  constitution  it  is  so  easy  to  define  in  its  main 
lines. 

The  dominant  features  of  this  mental  constitution 
from  the  point  of  view  of  character  are  :  a  degree  of 
will  power  which  very  few  peoples,  with  the  exception 
perhaps  of  the  Romans,  have  possessed,  an  indomit- 
able energy,  very  great  initiative,  absolute  self- 
control,  a  sentiment  of  independence  carried  to  the 
pitch  of  excessive  unsociability,  immense  activity,  very 
lively  religious  sentiments,  a  very  stable  morality,  and 
a  very  clear  idea  of  duty. 

From  the  intellectual  point  of  view,  it  is  impossible 
to  give  special  characteristics,  that  is  to  say  to  point 
out  special  elements,  not  to  be  found  in  the  other 
civilised  nations.  There  is  little  to  note  beyond  a 
sureness  of  judgment  which  allows  of  the  grasping  of 
the  practical  and  positive  side  of  things  and  keeps 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          141 

those  who  possess  it  from  losing  their  way  in 
chimerical  researches :  a  strong  liking  for  facts  and 
but  little  taste  for  general  ideas,  a  certain  narrowness 
of  mind  which  prevents  the  recognition  of  the  weak 
sides  of  religious  beliefs,  and  in  consequence  ensures 
those  beliefs  escaping  discussion. 

To  these  general  characteristics  must  be  added  a 
complete  optimism  with  regard  to  the  path  the  indi- 
vidual has  traced  himself  in  life,  which  leads  him 
never  even  to  suppose  that  he  could  possibly  have 
chosen  a  better.  He  is  always  aware  of  what  is 
demanded  of  him  by  his  country,  his  family,  his  Gods. 
This  optimism  is  carried  to  the  pitch  of  regarding 
whatever  is  foreign  as  extremely  contemptible.  Con- 
tempt for  the  foreigner  and  his  customs  certainly 
surpasses  in  England  that  formerly  professed  by  the 
Romans  and  Barbarians  at  the  time  of  their  greatness. 
So  great  is  it,  that  as  regards  the  foreigner  every  rule 
of  morality  ceases  to  hold  good.  There  is  not  an 
English  statesmen  who  does  not  consider  as  perfectly 
legitimate,  in  his  conduct  towards  other  peoples,  acts 
which  would  provoke  the  deepest  and  the  most  unani- 
mous indignation  if  they  were  practised  where  his 
countrymen  were  concerned.  This  contempt  for  the 
foreigner  is  doubtless  a  sentiment  of  a  very  inferior 


142  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

order  from  the  philosophic  point  of  view  ;  but  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  prosperity  of  a  people  it  is 
extremely  useful.  As  Lord  Wolseley,  the  well-known 
English  general,  has  rightly  remarked,  it  is  one  of  the 
sentiments  that  make  the  strength  of  England.  It  has 
been  said  with  reason,  in  connection  with  their  refusal 
— their  very  judicious  refusal  be  it  remarked — to 
allow  the  construction  of  a  tunnel  under  the  Channel, 
which  would  facilitate  communications  with  the  Conti- 
nent, that  the  English  take  as  much  trouble  as  the 
Chinese  to  prevent  the  penetration  into  their  country 
of  all  foreign  influence. 

All  the  characteristics  which  have  just  been  enu- 
merated are  met  with  in  the  various  social  grades  ;  it 
would  be  impossible  to  light  on  any  element  of 
English  civilisation  on  which  they  have  not  left  their 
mark.  The  foreigner  who  visits  England,  if  only  for 
a  few  days,  is  at  once  struck  by  this  fact.  He  will 
note  the  desire  for  an  independent  life  in  the  cottage 
of  the  most  humble  employe,  a  confined  dwelling,  no 
doubt,  but  in  which  the  householder  is  exposed  to  no 
restraint  and  is  isolated  from  his  neighbours  ;  in  the 
busiest  railway  stations  in  which  the  public  is  free  to 
circulate  at  all  hours,  not  being  penned  in,  like  a  flock 
of  docile  sheep,  behind  a  barrier  guarded  by  an 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         143 

employe,  as  if  it  were  necessary  to  assure  by  force 
the  security  of  people,  incapable  themselves  of  the 
amount  of  attention  necessary  to  keep  them  from 
being  run  over.  He  will  recognise  the  energy  of  the 
race  in  the  laboriousness  of  the  workman,  or  in  that 
of  the  schoolboy,  left  to  himself  while  still  quite 
young,  and  learning  to  look  after  himself  without 
assistance,  he  being  already  well  aware  that  in  the 
course  of  his  existence  nobody  will  be  concerned 
with  his  fate  ;  in  the  schoolmasters,  who  set  compara- 
tively little  store  on  learning  but  attach  great  import- 
ance to  character,  which  they  hold  to  be  one  of  the 
great  motive  forces  of  the  world.1  When  he  studies 
the  public  life  of  the  citizen,  he  will  see  that  it  is  not 
to  the  State  but  to  private  initiative  that  appeal  is 
always  made,  whether  it  is  a  case  of  repairing  a 
fountain  or  of  constructing  a  harbour  or  a  railway. 
Pursuing  his  inquiry,  he  will  soon  recognise  that  this 

1  Entrusted  by  the  Queen  of  England  with  deciding  the  conditions 
on  which  the  annual  prize  given  by  her  to  Wellington  College  should 
be  awarded,  Prince  Albert  ordered  that  it  should  be  granted  not  to  the 
scholar  who  had  done  best  in  his  studies,  but  to  the  boy  of  best  character. 
In  the  case  of  a  Latin  nation,  the  prize  would  certainly  have  been  given 
to  the  pupil  who  repeated  best  what  he  had  learned  from  his  books.  All 
our  education,  including  what  "we  term  higher  education,  consists  in 
making  our  youth  recite  lessons.  The  scholars  retain  the  habit  to  such 
a  degree  that  they  continue  to  recite  them  during  the  rest  of  their 
existence. 


144  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

people,  in  spite  of  defects  which  make  it  the  most 
insufferable  of  peoples  in  the  eyes  of  foreigners,  is  the 
only  really  free  people,  because  it  is  the  only  people 
which,  having  learned  to  govern  itself,  has  been  able 
to  leave  only  a  minimum  of  action  to  its  government. 
If  its  history  be  studied,  it  is  seen  that  it  was  the  first 
people  to  free  itself  from  every  kind  of  domination, 
from  that  of  the  Church  as  well  as  from  that  of  kings. 
As  early  as  the  fifteenth  century  the  legist  Fortescue 
contrasted  "  the  Roman  law,  the  inheritance  of  the 
Latin  peoples,  with  the  English  law :  the  one  the 
work  of  absolute  sovereigns,  and  wholly  inclined  to 
sacrifice  the  individual  ;  the  other  the  work  of  the 
will  of  the  community,  and  ever  ready  to  protect  the 
individual." 

To  whatever  quarter  of  the  globe  such  a  people 
may  emigrate,  it  will  at  once  acquire  the  preponder- 
ance, and  found  powerful  empires.  If  the  race  it 
invades,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Redskins  of  America, 
for  example,  is  sufficiently  weak,  and  insufficiently 
utilisable,  it  will  be  methodically  exterminated.  If 
the  race  invaded,  as  in  the  case  of  the  population  of 
India,  is  too  numerous  to  be  destroyed,  and  is  capable 
moreover  of  doing  productive  work,  it  will  simply  be 
reduced  to  a  very  oppressive  state  of  vassalage,  and 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         145 

obliged  to  labour  for  the  almost  exclusive  advantage 
of  its  masters. 

It  is  more  especially,  however,  in  a  new  country 
such  as  America,  that  the  astonishing  progress  due  to 
the  mental  constitution  of  the  English  race  should 
be  studied.  Transported  into  uncultivated  regions, 
sparsely  inhabited  by  some  few  savages,  it  is  notorious 
what  its  destiny  has  been.  Scarcely  a  century  has 
been  necessary  to  raise  the  country  to  the  front  rank 
among  the  great  powers  of  the  world,  and  to-day 
there  are  few  powers  that  would  be  a  match  for  it. 
I  advise  those  who  are  desirous  of  appreciating  for 
themselves  the  enormous  sum  of  initiative  and  indi- 
vidual energy  expended  by  the  citizens  of  the  great 
Republic  to  read  the  books  of  MM.  Rousier  and  Paul 
Bourget.  The  aptitude  of  the  Americans  to  govern 
themselves,  to  unite  together  to  found  great  enter- 
prises, to  create  towns,  schools,  harbours,  railways, 
etc.,  has  arrived  at  such  a  pitch,  and  the  action  of  the 
State  has  been  reduced  to  such  a  minimum,  that  it 
might  almost  be  said  that  no  public  authorities  exist. 
Apart  from  filling  police  duties  and  those  of  diplo- 
matic representation,  it  is  even  difficult  to  see  what 
purpose  they  could  serve. 

It   is   impossible,  moreover,  for   an   individual   to 
u 


146  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

prosper  in  the  United  States  except  on  the  condition 
that  he  possesses  the  qualities  of  character  I  have  just 
described,  and  this  is  why  the  foreign  immigrations 
are  powerless  to  modify  the  general  trend  of  mind  of 
the  race.  The  conditions  of  existence  are  such  that 
the  individuals  who  do  not  possess  these  qualities  are 
condemned  to  disappear  at  an  early  date.  Only  the 
Anglo-Saxon  can  live  in  this  atmosphere  saturated 
with  independence  and  energy.  The  Italian  dies  of 
starvation,  and  the  Irishman  and  the  negro  vegetate 
in  the  most  humble  situations. 

The  great  Republic  is  assuredly  the  land  of  liberty  ; 
it  is  assuredly  the  land  neither  of  equality  nor  of 
fraternity,  those  two  Latin  chimeras  which  the  laws 
of  progress  do  not  recognise.  In  no  country  on  the 
globe  has  natural  selection  made  its  iron  arm  more 
rudely  felt.  It  is  unpitying ;  but  it  is  precisely 
because  it  ignores  pity  that  the  race  it  has  con- 
tributed to  form  retains  its  power  and  energy. 
There  is  no  room  for  the  weak,  the  mediocre,  the 
incapable  on  the  soil  of  the  United  States.  By  the 
mere  fact  that  they  are  inferior,  isolated  individuals 
or  entire  races  are  destined  to  perish.  The  Redskin 
Indians,  because  useless,  have  been  shot  down,  or 
condemned  to  die  of  hunger.  The  Chinese  workmen, 


JTS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          147 

whose  labour  constitutes  a  vexatious  source  of  com- 
petition, will  soon  undergo  a  similar  fate.  The  law 
decreeing  their  total  expulsion  has  not  been  carried 
out  because  of  the  enormous  expenses  its  application 
would  entail.1  Its  place  will  doubtless  soon  be  taken 
by  a  methodical  destruction,  already  begun  in  several 
mining  districts.  Other  laws  have  recently  been 
voted,  forbidding  pauper  emigrants  to  land  on 
American  territory.  As  to  the  negroes  who  served 
as  the  pretext  for  the  War  of  Succession — a  war 
between  those  who  possessed  slaves,  and  those  who, 
being  unable  to  possess  them,  did  not  wish  to  allow 
others  to  own  them  —  they  are  almost  tolerated 
because  they  fill  none  but  subordinate  positions 
which  no  American  citizen  would  consent  to  accept. 
Theoretically  they  have  rights  ;  practically  they  are 
treated  like  semi- useful  animals,  who  are  got  rid  of 
as  soon  as  they  become  dangerous.  The  summary 
proceedings  of  Lynch-law  are  universally  recog- 
nised to  meet  their  case.  At  their  first  crime 
of  any  gravity  they  are  shot  or  hanged.  Statistics, 

1  The  Fifty-third  Congress  only  adjourned  the  execution  of  the  Geary 
law  (Chinese  Exclusion  Act)  because  it  found  that  to  convey  a  hundred 
thousand  Chinamen  back  to  their  country  would  involve  an  expenditure 
of  thirty  millions  of  francs,  whereas  the  sum  voted  for  the  expulsion  of 
the  Chinese  workmen  was  only  one  hundred  thousand  francs, 


148  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

which  only  include  a  portion  of  these  execu- 
tions, give  over  a  thousand  for  the  last  seven 
years. 

These  are  doubtless  the  gloomy  sides  of  the  picture. 
It  is  brilliant  enough  to  support  them.  If  it  were 
required  to  define  in  a  word  the  difference  between 
Continental  Europe  and  the  United  States,  it  might 
be  said  that  the  first  represents  the  maximum  of  what 
can  result  from  official  regulation  replacing  individual 
initiative  ;  the  second,  the  maximum  of  what  can  be 
effected  by  individual  initiative  entirely  freed  from  all 
official  regulation.  These  fundamental  differences  are 
exclusively  the  consequences  of  character.  It  is  not 
on  the  soil  of  the  rude  Republic  that  European 
Socialism  has  a  chance  of  implanting  itself.  The 
ultimate  expression  of  State  tyranny,  it  can  only 
prosper  among  old  races,  subjected  for  centuries  to  a 
regime  which  has  deprived  them  of  all  capacity  for 
self-government.1 

We  have  just  seen  what  has  been  accomplished  in 

1  The  America  I  have  just  described  is  the  America  of  yesterday  and 
to-day,  but  it  doubtless  will  not  be  that  of  to-morrow.  We  shall  see  in 
a  forthcoming  chapter  that  the  country  is  threatened,  in  consequence  of 
its  recent  invasion  by  an  immense  number  of  inferior  and  unassimilable 
elements,  by  a  gigantic  civil  war,  which  may  be  followed  by  its 
division  into  several  independent  States,  always  fighting  amongst 
themselves  as  are  those  of  Europe. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         149 

one  portion  of  America  by  a  race  possessing  a  mental 
constitution  of  which  the  dominant  features  are  per- 
severance, energy,  and  strength  of  will.  It  remains 
for  us  to  show  what  has  become  of  an  almost  similar 
country  in  the  hands  of  another  race,  which,  though 
highly  intelligent,  possesses  none  of  the  qualities  of 
character  whose  effects  I  have  just  noted. 

South  America,  as  regards  its  natural  productions, 
is  one  of  the  richest  countries  of  the  globe.  Twice  as 
large  as  Europe,  and  ten  times  less  inhabited,  there  is 
no  lack  of  land  which  is,  so  to  speak,  at  the  disposition 
of  everybody.  The  dominant  population,  which  is  of 
Spanish  origin,  is  divided  into  numerous  republics : 
the  republics  of  Argentina,  Brazil,  Chili,  Peru,  etc. 
All  of  them  have  adopted  the  political  constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  live  in  consequence  under 
identical  laws.  And  yet,  by  the  mere  fact  that  the 
race  is  different  and  lacks  the  fundamental  qualities 
possessed  by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  all  these 
republics,  without  a  single  exception,  are  perpetually 
a  prey  to  the  most  sanguinary  anarchy,  and  in  spite 
of  the  astonishing  richness  of  their  soil  they  are 
victims  one  after  the  other  of  every  sort  of  political 
and  economic  disaster,  of  bankruptcy  and  despotism. 

To  appreciate  the  lengths  reached  by  the  decadence 


150  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

of  the  Spanish-American  republics,  the  remarkable 
and  impartial  work  on  the  subject  of  Th.  Child 
must  be  read.  The  causes  of  this  decadence  lie 
entirely  in  the  mental  constitution  of  a  race  possessing 
neither  energy,  strength  of  will,  nor  morality.  The 
absence  of  morality,  in  particular,  surpasses  all  we 
know  that  is  worst  in  Europe.  Citing  one  of  the 
most  important  towns,  Buenos  Ayres,  the  author 
declares  it  to  be  uninhabitable  by  anybody  of  any 
delicacy  of  conscience  or  morality.  In  reference  to 
one  of  the  least  degraded  of  the  republics,  the 
Argentine  Republic,  the  same  writer  adds  :  "  If  this 
republic  be  studied  from  the  commercial  point  of 
view,  one  is  dumbfounded  by  the  blatant  immorality 
that  is  to  be  met  with  in  every  direction." 

As  to  the  institutions,  there  is  no  better  example  of 
how  wholly  they  are  the  offspring  of  the  race,  and 
of  the  impossibility  of  transplanting  them  from  one 
people  to  another.  It  was  of  great  interest  to  know 
what  would  happen  to  the  very  liberal  institutions  of 
the  United  States  after  their  introduction  among  an 
inferior  race.  "  These  countries,"  M.  Child  informs 
us  of  the  various  Spanish-American  republics,  "  are 
under  the  ferule  of  Presidents  who  exercise  an 
autocracy  not  less  absolute  than  that  of  the  Tzar  of 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         151 

all  the  Russias  ;  more  absolute,  indeed,  for  they  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  importunities  and  the 
influence  of  European  censure.  The  Government 
officials  are  solely  recruited  from  amongst  their 
creatures ;  .  .  .  the  citizens  vote  as  they  choose,  but 
no  account  is  paid  to  their  votes.  The  Argentine 
Republic  is  a  republic  in  name  only  ;  in  reality  it  is 
an  oligarchy  in  the  hands  of  persons  who  make  a 
commerce  of  politics." 

Only  one  country,  Brazil,  had  to  some  extent 
escaped  this  decadence,  thanks  to  a  monarchical 
regime  which  kept  the  central  authority  from  being 
the  object  of  individual  rivalries.  This  constitution, 
too  liberal  for  races  without  energy  and  without  will, 
has  ended  by  succumbing.  The  result  is  that  the 
country  is  a  prey  to  utter  anarchy.  In  the  lapse  of  a 
few  years,  the  dilapidation  of  the  public  finances  by 
those  in  power  has  been  such  that  the  taxes  have 
had  to  be  increased  by  over  sixty  per  cent. 

Naturally,  it  is  not  in  politics  only  that  the 
decadence  is  manifest  of  the  Latin  race  by  which 
South  America  is  peopled,  but  in  all  the  other 
elements  of  civilisation  as  well.  Left  to  themselves, 
these  hapless  republicans  would  revert  to  pure 
barbarism.  All  their  industry  and  commerce  is  in 


152  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

the  hands  of  foreigners,  of  Englishmen,  Americans,  and 
Germans.  Valparaiso  has  become  an  English  city; 
and  nothing  would  remain  of  Chili  if  the  foreign 
element  were  to  disappear.  It  is  thanks  to  the 
foreigner  that  these  countries  still  retain  that  external 
varnish  of  civilisation  that  still  deceives  Europe.  The 
Argentine  Republic  counts  four  millions  of  whites  of 
Spanish  origin  ;  I  doubt  whether  a  single  white  man, 
apart  from  foreigners,  could  be  cited  at  the  head  of  an 
important  industry. 

This  terrible  decadence  of  the  Latin  race,  left  to 
itself,  compared  with  the  prosperity  of  the  English 
race  in  a  neighbouring  country,  is  one  of  the  most 
sombre,  the  saddest,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most 
instructive  experiences  that  can  be  cited  in  support  of 
the  psychological  laws  that  I  have  enunciated. 


CHAPTER    III 

HOW  THE  MODIFICATION  OF  THE  SOUL  OF  RACES 
AFFECTS  THE  HISTORICAL  EVOLUTION  OF 
PEOPLES 

The  influence  of  foreign  elements  at  once  transforms  the  soul  of  a  race, 
and  in  consequence  its  civilisation — Example  of  the  Romans — 
Roman  civilisation  was  not  destroyed  by  military  invasions,  but 
by  the  pacific  invasions  of  the  Barbarians — The  Barbarians  never 
formed  the  project  of  destroying  the  Empire — Their  invasions  were 
not  of  the  nature  of  conquests — The  early  Frank  chiefs  always  con- 
sidered themselves  to  be  functionaries  of  the  Roman  Empire — They 
always  respected  Roman  civilisation,  and  their  aim  was  to  continue 
it — It  was  only  from  the  seventh  century  onwards  that  the  Gallic 
barbarian  chiefs  ceased  to  consider  the  Emperor  as  their  superior — 
The  complete  transformation  of  Roman  civilisation  was  not  the 
consequence  of  a  work  of  destruction,  but  of  the  adoption  of  an 
ancient  civilisation  by  a  new  race — The  modern  invasions  of  the 
United  States — The  civil  strife  and  the  breaking  up  of  the  United 
States  into  independent  and  rival  States  to  which  these  invasions 
will  lead — The  invasion  of  France  by  foreigners  and  their  con- 
sequences. 

THE    examples   we   have    cited   show   that  the 
history  of  a  people  does  not  depend    on    its 

institutions,  but  on  its  character — that  is  to  say,  on  its 

153 


154  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

race.  We  further  saw,  when  studying  the  formation 
of  historical  races,  that  their  dissolution  is  the  result 
of  cross-breeding,  and  that  the  peoples  which  have 
preserved  their  unity  and  force — the  Aryans,  for 
example,  in  India  in  the  past,  and  in  modern  times 
the  English  in  their  various  colonies — are  those  who 
have  always  carefully  avoided  intermarrying  with 
foreigners.  The  presence  in  the  midst  of  a  people  of 
foreigners,  even  in  small  numbers,  is  sufficient  to 
affect  its  soul,  since  it  causes  it  to  lose  its  capacity  for 
defending  the  characteristics  of  its  race,  the  monu- 
ments of  its  history,  and  the  achievements  of  its 
ancestors. 

This  conclusion  arises  out  of  all  of  what  precedes. 
If  the  various  elements  of  a  civilisation  are  to  be 
regarded  as  the  exterior  manifestation  of  the  soul  of 
a  people,  it  is  evident  that  as  soon  as  the  soul  of  the 
people  changes,  its  civilisation  should  change  as  well. 

The  history  of  the  past  supplies  us  with  incon- 
trovertible proof  that  this  is  what  indeed  occurs,  and 
the  history  of  the  future  will  furnish  many  other  such 
proofs. 

The  progressive  transformation  of  Roman  civilisa- 
tion is  one  of  the  most  striking  examples  it  is  possible 
to  invoke.  Historians  usually  picture  this  event  as 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         155 

the  result  of  the  destructive  invasions  of  the  Bar- 
barians ;  but  a  more  attentive  study  of  the  facts 
shows,  on  the  one  hand,  that  it  was  pacific  and  not 
warlike  invasions  which  brought  about  the  fall  of  the 
Empire  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  Barbarians, 
far  from  having  wished  to  overthrow  Roman  civili- 
sation, devoted  all  their  efforts  towards  adopting  and 
continuing  institutions  of  which  they  were  the  re- 
spectful admirers.  They  essayed  to  appropriate  the 
language,  the  institutions  and  the  arts  of  Rome. 
Down  to  the  time  of  the  last  of  the  Merovingians, 
they  endeavoured  to  continue  the  great  civilisation 
of  which  they  were  the  heirs.  This  guiding  intention 
is  reflected  in  all  the  acts  of  the  great  Emperor 
Charlemagne. 

We  know,  however,  that  such  a  task  has  always 
been  impossible.  The  Barbarians  needed  several 
centuries  before  they  could  form,  by  repeated  crosses 
and  identical  conditions  of  existence,  a  race  in  any 
way  homogeneous  ;  and  when  this  race  was  formed  it 
possessed,  merely  in  virtue  of  the  fact  of  its  creation, 
a  new  language  and  new  institutions,  and  in  con- 
sequence a  new  civilisation.  The  mighty  traditions  of 
Rome  left  their  impress  deeply  marked  on  this 
civilisation,  but  the  various  efforts  to  revive  the 


156  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

civilisation  of  Rome  itself  have  always  been  vain. 
The  Renaissance  endeavoured  in  vain  to  revive  its 
arts,  and  the  Revolution  to  bring  back  its  institutions. 

The  Barbarians  who  successively  invaded  the 
Empire  from  the  first  century  onwards,  and  who  in 
the  end  absorbed  it,  never  proposed  to  destroy  but, 
on  the  contrary,  to  continue  its  civilisation.  Had 
they  never  waged  war  on  Rome,  had  they  confined 
themselves  to  mixing  with  the  Romans  in  ever 
increasing  numbers,  the  course  of  history  would  not 
have  been  changed  ;  they  would  not  have  destroyed 
the  Empire,  but  their  mere  mingling  with  the  Roman 
people  would  have  sufficed  to  destroy  its  soul.  It 
may  be  said,  then,  that  the  Roman  civilisation  has 
never  been  overthrown,  but  has  simply  been  con- 
tinued, transforming  itself  in  the  course  of  ages  by 
the  mere  fact  of  its  having  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
different  races. 

A  glance  at  the  history  of  the  barbarian  invasions 
is  amply  sufficient  to  justify  what  precedes. 

The  labours  of  modern  scholars,  and  particularly 
those  of  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  have  clearly  shown 
that  it  was  the  pacific  and  not  the  aggressive 
invasions  of  the  Barbarians — the  aggressive  invasions 
were  easily  repulsed  by  Barbarians  in  the  pay  of  the 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         157 

empire — that    brought    about    the    progressive    dis- 
appearance of  the  might  of  Rome.     As  early  as  the 
times  of  the  first   emperors   the   custom   had   been 
introduced  of  employing  Barbarians  in  the  army.     It 
gained  ground  in  proportion  as  the  Romans  became 
richer  and  more  refractory  to  military  service,  till, 
after  the  lapse  of  several  centuries,  there  were  none 
but  foreigners  in  the  army  as  in  the  administration  : 
"  The  Visigoths,  the  Burgundians,  the  Franks  were 
federate  soldiers  in  the  service  of  the  Roman  Empire." 
When  Rome  came  to  have  none  but  Barbarians  in 
its  service,  and  when  its  provinces  were  governed  by 
barbarian   chiefs,  it   was    evident    that   these   chiefs 
would    render   themselves    progressively    more    and 
more   independent.     They   were,   indeed,   successful 
in  this  effort,  but  such  was  the  prestige  of  Rome,  that 
it  never  occurred  to  any  of  them  to  overthrow  the 
empire,   even    when    Rome    fell    into    their    power. 
When   one   of  these   chiefs,   Odoacre,   king   of   the 
Heruti,  in  the  pay  of  the  empire,  possessed  himself 
of  Rome  in  476,  he  hastened  to  ask  the  emperor, 
whose  residence  at  this  time  was  Constantinople,  for 
his  authorisation  to  govern   Italy  with  the  title  of 
Patrician.     None  of  the  other  chiefs  behaved  differ- 
ently.    It  was  always  in  the  name  of  Rome  that  they 


158  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

governed  their  provinces.  It  never  occurred  to  them 
to  dispose  of  the  soil  or  to  tamper  with  the  institutions. 
Clovis  regarded  himself  as  a  Roman  functionary,  and 
was  very  proud  when  he  obtained  the  title  of  consul 
from  the  emperor.  Thirty  years  after  his  death,  his 
successors  still  accepted  the  laws  promulgated  by  the 
emperors,  and  considered  themselves  bound  to  see 
that  they  were  observed.  The  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century  must  be  reached  before  the  barbarian 
chiefs  of  Gaul  are  found  to  venture  on  issuing  money 
bearing  their  own  effigy.  Until  then  their  coins  had 
always  borne  the  effigy  of  the  emperors.  It  is  only 
from  this  period  onwards  that  it  can  be  said  that  the 
Gallic  population  ceased  to  regard  the  emperor  as 
their  chief.  In  fact,  the  historians  make  the  history 
of  France  begin  two  hundred  years  too  soon  and 
accord  us  some  ten  kings  too  many. 

Nothing  less  resembles  a  conquest  than  the  bar- 
barian invasions,  since  the  populations  retained  their 
lands,  their  language,  and  their  laws,  which  is  never 
the  case  in  connection  with  true  conquests,  such  as 
that,  for  example,  of  England  by  the  Normans. 

It  is  probable  that  the  disappearance  of  the 
authority  of  Rome  was  so  gradual,  that  it  took  place 
unperceived  by  the  people  of  the  period.  The 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         159 

provinces  had  been  accustomed  for  centuries  to  be 
governed  by  chiefs  acting  in  the  name  of  the 
emperors.  Very  gradually  and  very  slowly  their 
chiefs  came  to  govern  on  their  own  account.  Nothing 
in  consequence  was  changed.  The  same  regime 
continued  under  new  masters  throughout  the  Merov- 
ingian period.1 

The  only  real  change,  and  it  ended  by  becoming  a 
very  profound  change,  was  the  formation  of  a  new 
historic  race,  involving  as  a  necessary  consequence — 
according  to  the  laws  we  have  set  forth — the  birth  of 
a  new  civilisation. 

In  virtue  of  that  eternal  repetition  of  the  same 
phenomena,  which  seems  the  most  fixed  of  the  laws 
of  history,  we  are  probably  destined  to  witness  in 
contemporary  history  pacific  invasions  analogous  to 
those  which  brought  about  the  transformation  of 
Roman  civilisation.  In  view  of  the  general  exten- 
sion of  modern  civilisation,  it  may  seem  that  nowa- 
days there  are  no  longer  any  barbarians,  or  at  any 
rate  that  these  barbarians,  relegated  to  the  depths  of 
Asia  and  Africa,  are  too  far  from  us  to  be  very 

1  "  The  Merovingian  government,"  declares  M.  Fustel  de  Coulanges, 
"  was  in  the  main  a  continuation  of  that  which  the  Roman  Empire  had 
given  Gaul.  .  .  .  There  was  nothing  feudal  about  the  government  of 
the  Merovingians," 


160  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

redoubtable.  Assuredly  we  have  not  to  fear  being 
invaded  by  them  ;  and  if  they  are  to  be  dreaded  it 
will  only  be,  as  I  have  shown  in  another  work, 
because  the  time  may  come  when  they  will  enter  into 
economic  rivalry  with  Europe.  It  is  not  with  them 
in  consequence  that  we  are  concerned  here,  but 
though  the  Barbarians  may  seem  to  be  very  distant, 
they  are  in  reality  very  close,  far  closer  than  at  the 
time  of  the  Roman  emperors.  The  fact  is  that  they 
exist  in  the  very  bosom  of  civilised  nations.  In 
consequence  of  the  complication  of  our  modern 
civilisation,  and  of  that  progressive  differentiation  of 
individuals  to  which  I  have  referred,  each  people 
contains  an  immense  number  of  inferior  elements 
incapable  of  adapting  themselves  to  a  civilisation 
that  is  too  superior  for  them.  There  results  an 
enormous  waste  population,  and  the  peoples  who 
come  to  be  invaded  by  it  will  have  reason  to  dread 
the  experience. 

At  the  present  day  it  is  towards  the  United  States 
of  America  that  these  new  barbarians  direct  their 
steps  with  a  common  accord,  and  it  is  by  them  that  the 
civilisation  of  this  great  nation  is  seriously  threatened. 
So  long  as  the  foreign  immigration  was  on  a  small 
scale,  and  composed  in  the  main  of  English  elements, 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          161 

its  absorption  was  easy  and  useful.  It  has  brought 
about  the  astonishing  greatness  of  America.  The 
United  States  are  now  exposed  to  a  gigantic  invasion 
of  inferior  elements  which  they  neither  wish  nor  are 
able  to  assimilate.  Between  1880  and  1890  they 
received  nearly  six  millions  of  emigrants,  almost 
exclusively  composed  of  workmen  of  a  low  class  and 
of  every  nationality.  To-day  of  the  1,100,000  in- 
habitants of  Chicago  not  a  quarter  are  Americans. 
The  population  includes  400,000  Germans,  220,000 
Irish,  50,000  Poles,  55,000  Czechs,  etc.  There  is  no 
fusion  between  these  immigrants  and  the  Americans. 
They  do  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  learn  the 
language  of  their  new  country,  in  which  they  form 
mere  colonies  engaged  in  badly  paid  occupations. 
They  are  discontented  and  in  consequence  dangerous. 
During  the  recent  railway  strike  Chicago  narrowly 
escaped  being  burned  down  by  them,  and  it  was 
necessary  to  fire  on  them  pitilessly.  It  is  solely 
among  their  ranks  that  are  recruited  the  adepts  of 
that  barbarous  and  levelling  socialism,  which  is 
perhaps  realisable  in  decadent  Europe,  but  is  quite 
antipathetic  to  the  character  of  true  Americans.  The 
conflicts  which  socialism  is  about  to  engender  on  the 
soil  of  the  great  Republic  will  be,  in  reality,  conflicts 


12 


162  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

between  races  which  have  reached  different  levels  of 
evolution. 

It  seems  evident  that  in  the  civil  war  that  is 
preparing  between  the  America  of  the  Americans 
and  the  America  of  the  foreigners,  the  triumph  will 
not  rest  with  the  barbarians.  This  gigantic  struggle 
will  doubtless  end  in  a  hecatomb  reproducing  on  an 
immense  scale  the  complete  extermination  of  the 
Cimbrians  by  Marius.  If  the  struggle  is  at  all 
delayed  and  the  invasion  continues,  it  will  become 
impossible  that  the  solution  should  be  total  destruc- 
tion. In  that  case  the  destiny  of  the  United  States 
will  probably  be  that  of  the  Roman  Empire — that  is  to 
say,  the  breaking  up  of  the  existing  provinces  of  the 
republic  into  independent  states,  as  divided  and  as 
frequently  at  war  as  those  of  Europe  or  as  those  of 
Spanish  America. 

America  is  not  the  only  country  threatened  by 
these  invasions.  There  is  one  State  in  Europe, 
France,  which  is  menaced  in  the  same  way.  It  is  a 
rich  country,  whose  population  does  not  increase, 
surrounded  by  poor  countries  whose  population  is 
constantly  increasing.  The  immigration  of  these 
neighbours  is  inevitable,  and  the  more  so  as  it  is 
rendered  necessary  by  the  growing  exigencies  of  our 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         163 

working  classes,  taken  in  connection  with  the  needs 
of  agriculture  and  industry.  The  advantages  these 
immigrants  find  on  our  soil  are  evident.  They  are 
freed  from  the  obligation  of  military  service,  being 
foreign  nomads  they  have  few  or  no  taxes  to  pay, 
and  the  work  is  easier  and  better  paid  than  in  their 
native  territory.  Further,  they  invade  our  country, 
not  merely  because  of  its  riches,  but  because  the 
majority  of  other  countries  are  always  passing  laws 
forbidding  their  entrance. 

This  invasion  of  foreigners  is  the  more  redoubtable, 
in  that  it  is  naturally  the  most  inferior  elements, 
those  that  cannot  succeed  in  making  a  livelihood  in 
their  own  country,  that  emigrate.  Our  humanitarian 
principles  condemn  us  to  undergo  an  ever  increasing 
foreign  invasion.  Forty  years  ago  there  were  only 
400,000  such  foreign  immigrants  ;  to-day  they  number 
over  1,200,000,  and  they  are  always  flocking  in 
in  increasing  hordes.  Considered  merely  in  respect  to 
the  number  of  Italians  it  contains,  Marseilles  might 
be  called  an  Italian  colony.  Italy  does  not  possess  a 
single  colony  that  contains  a  like  number  of  Italians. 
If  the  present  conditions  do  not  change,  if,  that  is  to 
say,  these  invasions  do  not  stop,  but  a  very  short 
time  will  have  to  elapse  before  a  third  of  the  popula- 


164  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

tion  of  France  has  become  German  and  a  third 
Italian.  What  can  become  of  the  unity,  or  even  of 
the  existence  of  a  people  under  such  conditions? 
The  worst  disasters  on  the  battlefield  would  be 
infinitely  less  grave  than  such  invasions.1  It  was  a 
very  sure  instinct  that  taught  the  ancient  peoples  to 
dread  foreigners  ;  they  were  well  aware  that  the  situa- 
tion of  a  country  is  judged  not  by  the  number  of  its 
inhabitants,  but  by  that  of  its  citizens. 

Once  more  we  find  that  at  the  bottom  of  all 
historical  and  social  questions  lies  the  inevitable 
racial  problem.  It  dominates  all  the  others. 

1  These  invasions  being  the  consequence  of  certain  economical 
phenomena  it  is  impossible  to  control,  they  cannot  be  prevented.  Still, 
certain  measures  might  be  taken  which  would  at  least  check  them  : 
obligatory  military  service  in  the  Foreign  Legion  for  all  foreigners  less 
than  twenty-five  years  of  age  and  counting  two  years'  residence ;  military 
tax  on  the  older  immigrants ;  almost  entire  suppression  of  naturalisa- 
tion ;  tax  amounting  to  a  quarter  of  the  income  or  salary  on  all 
foreigners  established  in  France  for  less  than  fifty  years.  The  Deputy 
who  should  cause  such  a  law  to  be  voted  would  be  worthy  of  a  statue 
erected  by  his  grateful  country. 


BOOK    IV 

HOW  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL    CHARACTERISTICS 
OF  RACES  ARE  MODIFIED 


BOOK   IV 

HOW  THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL    CHARACTERISTICS 
OF  RACES  ARE  MODIFIED 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   ROLE   OF   IDEAS   IN   THE   LIFE   OF   PEOPLES 

The  leading  ideas  of  each  civilisation  are  always  very  few  in  number — 
Extreme  slowness  of  their  birth  and  disappearance — Ideas  do  not 
influence  conduct  until  they  have  been  transformed  into  sentiments 
— They  then  form  part  of  the  character — It  is  thanks  to  the  slow- 
ness of  the  evolution  of  ideas  that  civilisations  possess  a  certain 
fixity — How  ideas  take  root — The  reason  has  no  influence  what- 
ever— The  influence  of  affirmation  and  prestige — The  role  of 
enthusiasts  and  apostles — Deformation  undergone  by  ideas  as 
they  penetrate  the  masses — A  universally  admitted  idea  soon 
influences  all  the  elements  of  civilisation— It  is  thanks  to  their 
community  of  ideas  that  the  men  of  each  age  have  a  sum  total  of 
average  conceptions  which  makes  them  very  much  alike  in  their 
thoughts  and  actions — The  yoke  of  custom  and  opinion — It  is  not 
relaxed  until  the  critical  ages  of  history  when  the  old  ideas  are 
losing  their  influence  and  have  not  as  yet  been  replaced — This 
critical  age  is  the  only  age  in  which  the  discussion  of  opinions  can 
be  tolerated — Dogmas  only  hold  their  own  on  the  condition  that 
they  are  not  discussed — Peoples  cannot  change  their  ideas  and 
dogmas  without  being  at  once  obliged  to  change  their  civilisation. 

AFTER   having   shown    that   the    psychological 
characteristics  of  races  possess  great  fixity,  and 

that   the   history  of  peoples    is  the  consequence  of 

167 


168  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

these  characteristics,  we  added  that  it  was  possible 
for  the  psychological  elements,  as  it  is  for  the 
anatomical  elements  of  species,  to  be  transformed  in 
the  long  run  by  slow  hereditary  accumulations.  The 
evolution  of  civilisations  depends  in  a  large  measure 
on  these  transformations. 

Various  factors  are  capable  of  provoking  psycho- 
logical changes.  Wants,  the  struggle  for  life,  the 
action  of  certain  surroundings,  the  progress  of  the 
sciences  and  of  industry,  education,  beliefs,  and 
many  other  factors  exert  an  influence.  We  have 
already  devoted  a  volume  x  to  the  study  of  each  of 
them.  It  is  impossible  to  treat  the  matter  in  detail 
here.  We  merely  return  to  it  with  a  view  to  show- 
ing, by  the  choice  of  a  few  essential  factors,  the 
mechanism  of  their  action.  It  is  to  this  study  that 
will  be  devoted  the  present  and  following  chapters. 

The  study  of  the  various  civilisations  that  have 
succeeded  one  another  since  the  origin  of  the  world 
proves  that  they  have  always  been  guided  in  their 
development  by  a  very  small  number  of  fundamental 
ideas.  If  the  history  of  peoples  were  confined  to 
that  of  their  ideas  it  would  never  be  very  long.  When 
a  civilisation  has  succeeded  in  creating  in  a  century 

1  Ilhomme  et  les  socictes.     Leurs  origines  et  leur  histoire,  vol.  ii. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         169 

one  or  two  fundamental  ideas  in  the  domain  of  the 
arts,  the  sciences,  literature  or  philosophy,  it  may  be 
considered  that  it  has  been  exceptionally  brilliant. 

Ideas  can  have  no  real  action  on  the  soul  of 
peoples  until,  as  the  consequence  of  a  very  slow 
elaboration,  they  have  descended  from  the  mobile 
regions  of  thought  to  that  stable  and  unconscious 
region  of  the  sentiments  in  which  the  motives  of  our 
actions  are  elaborated.  They  then  become  elements 
of  character  and  may  influence  conduct.  Character 
is  formed  in  part  of  a  stratification  of  unconscious 
ideas. 

When  ideas  have  undergone  this  slow  elaboration 
their  power  is  considerable,  because  reason  ceases  to 
have  any  hold  on  them.  The  enthusiast  who  is 
dominated  by  an  idea,  religious  or  other,  is  in- 
accessible to  reasoning,  however  intelligent  he  may 
be.  -All  he  will  be  able  to  attempt,  and  most  often 
he  will  not  make  the  effort,  will  be  to  try,  by  artifices 
of  thought  and  deformations  often  very  great,  to 
bring  any  idea  that  seems  to  contradict  the  con- 
ceptions which  dominate  him,  into  some  sort  of 
agreement  with  them. 

If  ideas  can  only  exert  an  action  after  having  slowly 
descended  from  the  regions  of  the  conscious  to  those 


170  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

of  the  unconscious,  it  is  understandable  that  they  will 
be  very  slowly  transformed,  and  that  the  leading  ideas 
of  a  civilisation  should  be  very  few  in  number,  and 
require  so  long  a  period  for  their  evolution.  We 
ought  to  congratulate  ourselves  that  such  is  the 
case ;  were  it  not  so  it  would  be  impossible  that 
civilisations  should  have  any  fixity.  It  is  equally 
fortunate  that  new  ideas  can  implant  themselves  in 
the  long  run,  for  if  the  old  ideas  were  absolutely 
unchangeable,  civilisations  would  be  unable  to  realise 
any  progress.  Thanks  to  the  slowness  of  our  mental 
transformations  many  generations  of  men  are  needed 
to  secure  the  triumph  of  new  ideas,  and  many  other 
generations  to  bring  about  their  disappearance.  The 
most  civilised  peoples  are  those  whose  leading  ideas 
have  been  able  to  maintain  an  equal  distance  between 
variability  and  fixity.  History  is  strewn  with  the 
debris  of  the  peoples  who  have  been  unable  to 
maintain  this  equilibrium. 

It  is  easy,  in  consequence,  to  understand  how  it  is 
that  what  is  most  striking  when  the  history  of  the 
various  peoples  is  studied,  is  not  the  wealth  and  novelty 
of  their  ideas,  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  extreme  poverty 
of  these  ideas,  the  slowness  of  their  transformations, 
and  the  power  they  exert.  Civilisations  are  the 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         171 

result  of  some  few  fundamental  ideas,  and  when 
these  ideas  change,  the  civilisations  are  at  once  com- 
pelled to  change  as  well.  The  Middle  Ages  existed 
on  two  principal  ideas  :  the  religious  idea  and  the 
feudal  idea.  Its  arts,  its  literature,  and  its  entire 
conception  of  life  are  derived  from  these  ideas.  At 
the  time  of  the  Renaissance  these  ideas  undergo 
some  modification  ;  the  rediscovered  ideal  of  the  old 
Greco-Latin  world  implants  itself  in  Europe,  and  at 
once  the  conception  of  life,  the  arts  and  literature 
begin  to  be  transformed.  Then  the  authority  of 
tradition  is  shaken,  scientific  truths  substitute  them- 
selves gradually  for  revealed  truth,  and  civilisation  is 
once  against  transformed.  At  the  present  day  the 
old  religious  ideas  seem  definitely  to  have  lost  the 
greater  part  of  their  empire,  and  owing  to  this  fact  all 
the  social  institutions  that  were  based  on  them  are 
threatened  with  destruction. 

The  history  of  the  genesis  of  ideas,  of  their  domi- 
nation, of  their  transformations,  and  of  their  disappear- 
ance, can  only  be  written  on  the  principle  of  citing 
numerous  examples  in  illustration.  Could  we  enter 
into  details,  we  would  show  that  each  element  of 
civilisation — philosophy,  beliefs,  arts,  literature,  etc. — 
is  subject  to  a  very  small  number  of  leading  ideas 


172  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

whose  evolution  is  exceedingly  slow.  The  sciences 
themselves  do  not  escape  this  law.  The  whole  of 
modern  physics  is  derived  from  the  idea  of  the 
indestructibility  of  force,  the  whole  of  biology  from 
the  idea  of  evolution,  the  whole  of  medicine  from  the 
idea  of  the  action  of  the  infinitely  small;  and  the 
history  of  these  ideas  shows  that,  although  the 
persons  called  upon  to  appreciate  them  belong  to 
the  most  enlightened  classes,  they  only  establish 
themselves  little  by  little  and  with  difficulty.  In  a 
century  in  which  everything  proceeds  with  such 
rapidity,  and  in  a  field  of  investigation  in  which 
passions  and  interests  have  little  play,  the  implanting 
of  a  fundamental  scientific  idea  requires  not  less  than 
twenty-five  years.  The  clearest  ideas,  those  most 
easily  demonstrable,  those  which  should  have  aroused 
the  least  controversy,  were  just  as  long  in  finding 
acceptance. 

Whatever  the  nature  of  the  idea,  whether  it  be  a 
scientific,  artistic,  philosophic,  or  religious  idea,  the 
mechanism  of  its  propagation  is  always  identical. 
It  has  to  be  adopted  at  first  by  a  small  number  of 
apostles,  the  intensity  of  whose  faith  and  the 
authority  of  whose  names  give  great  prestige.  They 
then  act  much  more  by  suggestion  than  by  demon- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          173 

stration.  The  essential  elements  of  the  mechanism 
of  persuasion  must  not  be  sought  for  in  the  value  of 
a  demonstration.  Ideas  can  be  enforced  either  by  the 
prestige  of  the  promulgator  or  by  an  appeal  to  the 
passions,  but  no  influence  is  exerted  by  appealing 
solely  to  the  reason.  The  masses  never  let  them- 
selves be  persuaded  by  demonstrations,  but  merely  by 
affirmations,  and  the  authority  of  "these  affirmations 
depends  solely  on  the  prestige  exerted  by  the 
person  who  enunciates  them. 

When  these  apostles  have  succeeded  in  convincing 
a  small  circle  of  adepts  and  have  thus  formed  new 
apostles,  the  new  idea  begins  to  enter  the  domain  of 
discussion.  It  arouses  at  first  universal  opposition, 
because  it  necessarily  clashes  with  much  that  is  old 
and  established.  The  apostles  who  defend  it  are 
naturally  excited  by  this  opposition,  which  merely 
convinces  them  of  their  superiority  over  the  rest  of 
mankind,  and  they  defend  the  new  idea  energetically, 
not  because  it  is  true — most  often  they  know  nothing 
about  its  truth  or  falsehood — but  simply  because  they 
have  adopted  it.  The  new  idea  is  now  more  and  more 
discussejd ;  that  is  to  say,  in  reality  it  is  entirely  accepted 
by  the  one  side,  and  entirely  rejected  by  the  other  side. 
Affirmations  and  negations  but  very  few  arguments, 


174  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

are  exchanged,  the  sole  motives  for  the  acceptance  or 
rejection  of  an  idea  being  inevitably,  for  the  immense 
majority  of  brains,  mere  sentimental  motives,  in  which 
reasoning  cannot  have  any  part. 

Thanks  to  these  always  impassioned  debates,  the 
idea  progresses  slowly.  The  new  generations  who 
find  it  controverted  tend  to  adopt  it  merely  because 
it  is  controverted.  For  young  persons,  always 
eager  to  be  independent,  wholesale  opposition  to 
received  ideas  is  the  most  accessible  form  of 
originality. 

The  idea  continues  then  to  gain  ground,  and  before 
long  it  has  no  longer  any  need  of  support.  It  will 
now  spread  everywhere  by  the  mere  effect  of  imita- 
tion, acting  as  a  contagion,  a  faculty  with  which  men 
are  generally  endowed  in  as  high  a  degree  as  are  the 
big  anthropoid  apes,  which  modern  science  assigns 
to  men  as  their  forefathers. 

As  soon  as  the  mechanism  of  contagion  intervenes, 
the  idea  enters  on  the  phase  which  necessarily  means 
success.  It  is  soon  accepted  by  opinion.  It  then 
acquires  a  penetrating  and  subtle  force  which  spreads 
it  progressively  among  all  intellects,  creating  simul- 
taneously a  sort  of  special  atmosphere,  a  general 
manner  of  thinking.  Like  the  fine  dust  of  the  high- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         175 

way  which  penetrates  everywhere,  it  finds  its  way 
into  all  the  conceptions  and  all  the  productions  of  an 
epoch.  The  idea  and  its  consequences  then  form  part 
of  that  compact  stock  of  hereditary  commonplaces 
imposed  on  us  by  education.  The  idea  has  triumphed 
and  has  entered  the  domain  of  sentiment  where  for 
long  it  will  have  nothing  to  fear. 

Of  the  various  ideas  which  guide  a  civilisation, 
some,  those  relating  to  the  arts  or  philosophy  for 
example,  rest  confined  to  the  upper  grades  of  the 
nation  ;  others,  particularly  those  relating  to  religious 
conceptions  and  politics,  go  deep  down  in  some 
instances  among  the  crowd.  They  arrive  there  in 
general  much  deformed,  but  when  they  arrive  there 
the  power  they  exert  over  primitive  minds  incapable 
of  reasoning  is  immense.  The  idea  under  these  con- 
ditions represents  something  that  is  invincible,  and 
its  efforts  are  propagated  with  the  violence  of  a 
torrent  that  has  overflown  its  banks.  It  is  always 
easy  to  find  among  a  people  a  hundred  thousand 
men  ready  to  risk  their  lives  to  defend  an  idea  as 
soon  as  this  idea  has  subjugated  them.  Then  it  is 
that  supervene  those  great  events  which  revolutionise 
history,  and  which  only  crowds  are  capable  of  accom- 
plishing. It  is  not  men  of  letters,  artists,  or  philo- 


176  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

sophers  who  established  the  religions  which  have 
ruled  the  world,  or  the  vast  empires  which  have 
stretched  from  one  hemisphere  to  another,  or  who 
have  been  the  causes  of  the  great  religious  and 
political  revolutions  which  have  changed  the  face  of 
Europe.  These  achievements  have  been  the  work  of 
the  illiterate  sufficiently  dominated  by  an  idea  to 
sacrifice  their  lives  to  its  propagation.  With  nothing 
else  to  rely  on  but  this  theoretically  very  insignificant 
though  practically  very  effective  outfit,  the  nomads  of 
the  deserts  of  Arabia  conquered  a  portion  of  the  old 
Greco-Roman  world  and  founded  one  of  the  most 
giganic  empires  known  to  history.  It  was  with  a 
similar  moral  outfit — the  domination  of  an  idea — 
that  the  heroic  soldiers  of  the  Convention  were 
victorious  against  the  onslaughts  of  Europe  up  in 
arms. 

A  strong  conviction  is  so  irresistible  that  only  a 
conviction  of  equal  strength  has  any  chance  of 
resisting  it  victoriously.  Faith  is  the  only  serious 
enemy  faith  has  to  fear.  It  is  sure  to  triumph  where 
the  material  force  opposed  to  it  is  in  the  service  of 
weak  sentiments  and  enfeebled  beliefs.  If,  however, 
it  finds  itself  confronted  by  a  faith  of  equal  intensity, 
the  struggle  becomes  very  severe,  and  success  under 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         177 

these  conditions  is  determined  by  accessory  circum- 
stances, most  often  of  a  moral  order,  by  the  spirit  of 
discipline  or  the  better  organisation.  A  close  study 
of  the  history  of  the  Arabs,  just  referred  to,  shows 
that  on  the  occasion  of  their  earlier  conquests — and 
these  conquests  are  always  the  most  difficult  and  the 
most  important — they  encountered  adversaries  who 
were  morally  weak,  although  their  military  organisa- 
tion was  fairly  good.  Syria  was  the  first  country 
they  invaded.  All  they  met  there  was  Byzantine 
armies  composed  of  mercenaries,  but  little  disposed 
to  sacrifice  themselves  for  any  cause  whatever. 
Animated  by  an  intense  faith  which  increased  their 
strength  tenfold,  they  dispersed  these  troops  who 
lacked  an  ideal  as  easily  as  before  their  time  a 
handful  of  Greeks,  sustained  by  love  of  their  city, 
had  dispersed  the  innumerable  soldiers  of  Xerxes. 
The  upshot  of  their  enterprise  would  have  been  quite 
different  if  they  had  come  into  collision  a  few 
centuries  earlier  with  the  Roman  cohorts.  It  is 
evident  that  when  equally  powerful  moral  forces  are 
pitted  against  one  another,  victory  rests  with  the 
side  that  is  best  organised.  The  faith  of  the  Vendeans 
was  assuredly  most  ardent,  they  were  most  energeti- 
cally convinced  ;  but  the  convictions  of  the  soldiers 

13 


178  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

of  the  Convention  were  also  very  strong,  and  as  their 
military  organisation  was  the  better,  they  gained  the 
day. 

In  religion,  as  in  politics,  success  always  goes  to 
those  who  believe,  never  to  those  who  are  sceptical, 
and  if  at  the  present  day  it  would  seem  as  if  the 
future  belongs  to  the  Socialists,  in  spite  of  the 
dangerous  absurdity  of  their  dogmas,  the  reason  is 
that  they  are  now  the  only  party  possessing  real 
convictions.  The  modern  governing  classes  have 
lost  faith  in  everything.  They  no  longer  believe  in 
anything,  not  even  in  the  possibility  of  defending 
themselves  against  the  threatening  flood  of  barbarians, 
by  which  they  are  surrounded  on  all  sides. 

When  an  idea,  after  a  longer  or  shorter  period  of 
tentative  existence,  modifications,  deformations,  dis- 
cussion and  propaganda,  has  acquired  its  definite  form 
and  penetrated  the  soul  of  the  masses,  it  constitutes  a 
dogma,  that  is  one  of  those  absolute  truths  which  are 
no  longer  discussed.  It  then  forms  part  of  those 
general  beliefs  on  which  the  existence  of  peoples  is 
based.  Its  universal  character  allows  it  to  play  a 
preponderating  role.  The  great  epochs  of  history, 
the  century  of  Augustus  or  that  of  Louis  XIV.,  have 
been  those  in  which  ideas,  leaving  their  tentative 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         179 

period  and  getting  beyond  discussion,  have  taken 
fixed  shape  and  become  the  sovereign  masters  of  the 
thought  of  men.  They  then  become  brilliant  beacons, 
and  everything  they  illumine  assumes  a  similar  hue. 

As  soon  as  a  new  idea  has  triumphed,  it  leaves  its 
mark  on  all  the  elements  of  civilisation,  including  the 
least  important ;  but  in  order  that  it  shall  produce  its 
full  effect  it  is  necessary  that  it  should  have  pene- 
trated the  soul  of  the  masses.  From  the  intellectual 
heights  on  which  it  came  into  being,  it  descends  from 
grade  to  grade,  undergoing  on  the  way  incessant 
alterations  and  modifications  until  it  has  taken  a 
shape  in  which  it  is  accessible  to  the  popular  soul 
that  is  to  secure  its  triumph.  At  this  point  it  is 
met  with  concentrated  in  a  very  few  words,  some- 
times in  a  single  word,  but  this  word  evokes  powerful 
images,  either  seductive  or  terrible,  but  always  on 
this  account  impressive.  Examples  are  the  words 
Paradise  and  Hell  in  the  Middle  Ages,  brief  syllables 
which  have  the  magic  power  of  corresponding  with 
everything,  and  for  simple  souls  of  explaining  every- 
thing. The  word  Socialism  represents  for  the  modern 
working  man  one  of  those  magical  and  synthetic 
formulae  capable  of  exerting  an  empire  over  souls. 
It  evokes  images  which  vary  with  the  masses  which  it 


i8o  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

penetrates,  but  which  are  powerful  in  spite  of  their 
rudimentary  forms. 

For  the  French  theoretician  the  word  Socialism 
evokes  the  image  of  a  sort  of  Paradise,  in  which  men, 
become  equal,  will  enjoy  ideal  felicity  under  the 
incessant  direction  of  the  State.  For  the  German 
working  man  the  image  evoked  presents  itself  under 
the  guise  of  a  smoky  tavern  in  which  the  Government 
will  serve  gratuitously  to  every  comer  gigantic 
pyramids  of  sausages  and  sauerkraut  and  unlimited 
pots  of  beer.  None  among  those  who  dream  either 
of  sauerkraut  or  of  equality  have  ever  of  course  been 
at  pains  to  find  out  the  sum  total  of  what  there  is 
to  be  divided  or  the  number  of  those  who  are  there  to 
share  it.  The  essential  characteristic  of  an  idea  of 
this  kind  is  that  it  assumes  an  absolute  shape  that 
raises  it  above  all  objection. 

When  the  idea  has  come  to  transform  itself  little 
by  little  into  a  sentiment,  and  has  become  a  dogma, 
its  triumph  is  assured  for  a  long  time,  and  all  attempts 
to  shake  it  by  reasoning  will  be  vain.  Doubtless  in 
the  end  the  new  idea  will  undergo  the  fate  of  the 
idea  whose  place  it  has  taken.  It  will  grow  old  and 
decline  ;  but  before  it  is  completely  used  up  it  will 
have  to  undergo  an  entire  series  of  retrograde  trans- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          181 

formations,  of  deformations  of  every  kind,  which  will 
demand  several  generations  for  their  accomplishment. 
Before  dying  out  entirely,  it  will  for  long  form  part  of 
those  old  hereditary  ideas  which  we  style  prejudices, 
but  which  we  nevertheless  respect.  An  old  idea,  even 
though  it  has  become  a  mere  word,  a  sound,  a 
mirage,  possesses  a  magical  power  by  which  we  are 
still  subjugated. 

In  this  way  is  kept  up  that  old  inheritance  of 
antiquated  ideas,  opinions,  and  conventions  which  we 
accept  without  demur,  though  they  would  offer  but 
little  resistance  to  an  effort  of  the  reason,  if  we  would 
consent  for  an  instant  to  discuss  them.  But  how  many 
men  are  capable  of  discussing  their  own  opinions, 
and  how  many  of  these  opinions  would  hold  water 
after  the  most  superficial  examination  ? 

It  is  better  that  the  redoubtable  examination 
should  not  be  attempted.  Happily  there  is  little  risk 
of  our  undertaking  it.  The  critical  spirit  constituting 
a  higher  faculty  that  is  very  rare,  whereas  the  spirit 
of  imitation  is  a  faculty  very  commonly  possessed,  the 
immense  majority  of  minds  accept  without  discussion 
the  ready-made  ideas  furnished  them  by  opinion  and 
transmitted  them  by  education. 

It  thus  happens  that  by  means  of  heredity,  educa- 


1 82  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

tion,  surroundings,  contagion  and  opinion,  the  men  of 
each  age  and  of  each  race  possess  a  sum  of  average 
conceptions  which  render  them  singularly  like  one 
another,  alike  indeed  to  such  a  degree  that,  when  the 
lapse  of  centuries  allows  us  to  consider  them  from 
the  proper  perspective,  we  recognise  by  their  artistic, 
philosophical,  and  literary  productions  the  epoch  at 
which  they  lived.  Doubtless  it  could  not  be  said  that 
they  copied  one  another  absolutely,  but  as  they  had 
in  common  identical  modes  of  feeling  and  thinking, 
they  were  necessarily  led  to  produce  very  kindred 
work. 

We  must  congratulate  ourselves  that  matters  are 
thus  arranged,  for  it  is  precisely  this  network  of 
common  traditions,  ideas,  sentiments,  beliefs,  and 
modes  of  thinking  that  form  the  soul  of  a  people. 
We  have  seen  that  the  vigour  of  the  soul  of  a  people 
is  in  proportion  to  the  strength  of  this  network.  It 
is  this  network  in  reality,  and  it  alone,  that  keeps 
nations  alive,  and  it  is  impossible  that  it  should  break 
up  without  the  nations  crumbling  away.  It  consti- 
tutes at  once  their  true  force  and  their  true  master. 
Asiatic  sovereigns  are  sometimes  represented  as  kinds 
of  despots  whose  fantasy  is  their  only  guide.  These 
fantasies,  on  the  contrary,  have  singularly  narrow 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         183 

limits.  The  network  of  traditions  is  more  especially 
powerful  in  the  East.  Religious  traditions,  so  en- 
feebled amongst  ourselves,  retain  all  their  empire  in 
the  East,  and  the  most  whimsical  despot  would  never 
run  counter  to  two  sovereigns  he  knows  are  infinitely 
more  powerful  than  he  is  :  tradition  and  opinion. 

The  modern  civilised  man  finds  himself  in  one  of 
those  rare  critical  periods  of  history  in  which  the  old 
ideas,  whence  his  civilisation  is  derived, having  lost  their 
empire,  and  the  new  ideas  not  being  formed  as  yet, 
discussion  is  tolerated.  He  must  go  back  to  the  ' 
periods  of  the  civilisations  of  antiquity,  or  merely  some 
two  or  three  centuries  back,  to  get  an  idea  of  the 
nature  in  those  ages  of  the  yoke  of  custom  and 
opinion,  and  to  learn  the  risks  run  by  innovators 
sufficiently  bold  to  attack  these  two  powers.  The 
Greeks,  whom  ignorant  rhetoricians  affirm  to  have 
been  so  free,  were  strictly  subjected  to  the  yoke 
of  opinion  and  custom.  Each  citizen  had  a  number 
of  absolutely  inviolable  beliefs ;  none  would  have 
thought  of  discussing  received  ideas,  which  were 
accepted  without  demur.  The  Grecian  world  was 
unacquainted  with  religious  liberty,  with  the  liberty 
of  private  life,  or  with  liberties  of  any  kind.  The 
Athenian  law  did  not  even  allow  the  citizen  to  keep 


184  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

aloof  from  the  assemblies,  or  not  to  celebrate  re- 
ligiously a  national  fete.  The  alleged  liberty  of  the 
ancient  world  was  nothing  but  the  unconscious  and, 
in  consequence,  absolute  form  of  the  entire  subjection 
of  the  citizen  to  the  yoke  of  the  ideas  of  his  city.  In 
the  state  of  general  war  in  which  societies  then  lived, 
a  society  whose  members  should  have  possessed 
liberty  of  thought  and  action  would  not  have  lasted  a 
single  day.  The  age  of  decadence  for  gods,  institu- 
tions, and  dogmas  has  always  begun  as  soon  as  they 
have  been  exposed  to  discussion. 

In  modern  civilisations,  the  old  ideas  which  form 
the  basis  of  custom  and  opinion  having  been  almost 
destroyed,  their  empire  over  souls  has  become  very 
weak.  They  have  entered  on  that  worn-out  phase 
in  which  old  ideas  are  in  process  of  becoming  pre- 
judices. As  long  as  they  are  not  replaced  by  a  new 
idea,  anarchy  reigns  in  men's  minds.  It  is  only 
thanks  to  this  anarchy  that  discussion  can  be 
tolerated.  Writers,  thinkers,  and  philosopher  sought 
to  bless  the  present  age  and  hasten  to  take  advantage 
of  it,  for  they  will  not  see  its  like  again.  It  is  perhaps 
an  age  of  decadence,  but  it  is  one  of  those  rare 
moments  in  the  history  of  the  world  during  which 
expression  of  thought  is  free.  It  is  impossible  that 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          185 

it  should  last.  Given  the  present  conditions  of  civili- 
sation, the  European  peoples  are  tending  towards 
a  social  state  which  will  tolerate  neither  discussion 
nor  liberty.  The  new  dogmas  that  are  about  to  come 
into  being  cannot  establish  themselves,  except  on  the 
condition  that  they  accept  no  discussions  of  any  kind, 
and  that  they  be  as  intolerant  as  the  dogmas  that 
have  preceded  them. 

The  man  of  the  present  day  is  still  searching  for 
the  ideas  that  shall  serve  as  the  basis  of  the  future 
social  state,  and  therein  lies  the  danger  he  runs. 
What  is  important  in  the  history  of  peoples,  and 
what  has  a  far-reaching  influence  on  their  destiny, 
is  neither  revolutions  nor  wars — their  ruins  are 
quickly  effaced — but  the  changes  in  their  fundamental 
ideas.  They  cannot  be  accomplished  without  all  the 
elements  of  a  civilisation  undergoing  of  necessity 
a  simultaneous  transformation.  The  real  revolutions, 
the  only  revolutions  that  endanger  the  existence  of  a 
people,  are  those  which  affect  its  thought. 

It  is  not  so  much  the  adoption  of  new  ideas  that  is 
dangerous  for  a  people,  as  the  trying  of  various 
ideas  in  succession  to  which  it  is  condemned  before  it 
finds  the  idea  on  which  it  will  be  able  to  build  up 
sufficiently  solidly  the  new  social  edifice  that  is  to 


186  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

replace  the  old.  It  is  not  assuredly  because  an  idea 
is  erroneous  that  it  is  dangerous — the  religious  ideas 
on  which  we  have  existed  up  to  now  were  most 
erroneous — but  it  is  because  long  repeated  experi- 
ments are  necessary  to  make  it  certain  that  the  new 
ideas  can  be  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  societies 
that  adopt  them.  The  masses  unhappily  can  only 
appreciate  their  degree  of  utility  by  dint  of 
experience.  Without  doubt,  there  is  no  need  to  be  a 
great  psychologist  or  a  great  economist  to  predict 
that  the  application  of  existing,  socialist  ideas  will 
lead  the  peoples  who  adopt  them  to  a  state  of  abject 
decadence  and  shameful  despotism  ;  but  how  are  the 
people  it  charms  to  be  prevented  from  accepting 
the  New  Gospel  that  is  preached  to  them  ? 

History  contains  frequent  examples  of  the  cost  of 
essaying  ideas  that  are  inacceptable  for  an  epoch,  but 
it  is  not  to  history  that  man  goes  for  lessons. 
Charlemagne  endeavoured  in  vain  to  re-establish  the 
Roman  Empire,  but  the  idea  of  unity  was  not 
realisable  at  the  time,  and  his  work  perished  with 
him,  as  that  of  Napoleon  was  destined  to  perish  at  a 
later  period.  Philip  II.  uselessly  wasted  his  genius, 
and  the  strength  of  Spain — the  predominant  country 
at  the  time — in  an  effort  to  combat  the  spirit  of  free 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         187 

inquiry  which  was  spreading  through  Europe  under 
the  name  of  Protestantism.  This  opposition  to  the 
new  idea  merely  resulted  in  reducing  Spain  to  a  state 
of  ruin  and  decadence  from  which  it  has  never 
recovered.  In  our  own  time,  the  chimerical  ideas  of 
a  crowned  visionary,  inspired  by  the  incurable 
international  sentimentalism  of  his  race,  have  brought 
about  the  unity  of  Italy  and  Germany,  and  have  cost 
us  two  provinces,  while  endangering  the  peace  of 
Europe  for  a  long  time  to  come.  The  utterly  false 
idea  that  numbers  constitute  the  strength  of  armies 
has  covered  Europe  with  a  sort  of  armed  national 
guard,  and  is  leading  up  to  its  inevitable  bankruptcy. 
The  socialist  ideas  with  regard  to  labour,  capital,  the 
transformation  of  private  property  into  State  property, 
etc.,  will  prove  the  destruction  of  the  peoples  that 
permanent  armies  and  bankruptcy  shall  have  spared. 
The  principle  of  nationalities,  formerly  so  dear  to 
statesmen  that  they  based  their  entire  policy  on  it, 
may  further  be  cited  among  the  leading  ideas,  whose 
dangerous  influence  has  had  to  be  undergone.  Its 
realisation  has  involved  Europe  in  the  most  disastrous 
war,  has  armed  it  from  one  end  to  the  other,  and  will 
land  all  modern  states  in  succession  in  ruin  and 
anarchy.  The  only  apparent  motive  that  could  be 


i88  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

invoked  in  defence  of  this  principle  was  that  the 
largest  and  most  populous  countries  are  the  strongest, 
and  run  the  fewest  risks.  It  was  secretly  reflected 
that  they  were  the  best  fitted  to  embark  on  conquest. 
It  is  found,  however,  to-day,  that  it  is  precisely  the 
smallest  and  least  populous  countries — Portugal, 
Greece,  Switzerland,  Belgium,  Sweden,  the  petty 
Balkan  principalities — that  have  the  least  to  fear 
from  their  neighbours.  The  idea  of  unity  has  so 
completely  ruined  Italy,  formerly  so  prosperous,  that 
it  is  on  the  eve  of  a  revolution  and  of  bankruptcy. 
The  annual  budgetary  expenditure  of  all  the  Italian 
States,  which  before  the  realisation  of  Italian  unity 
amounted  to  550  millions  now  reaches  two  milliards. 
It  is  not  given,  however,  to  men  to  stop  the  march 
of  ideas  when  they  have  penetrated  the  soul  of  the 
masses.  When  they  have  done  this,  their  evolution 
must  be  accomplished,  and  it  often  happens  that  they 
are  defended  by  those  who  will  be  their  first  victims. 
It  is  not  sheep  merely  that  docilely  follow  their  guide 
to  the  slaughter-house.  We  must  bow  before  the 
strength  of  an  idea.  When  it  has  attained  to  a 
certain  period  of  its  evolution,  there  are  no  longer 
either  arguments  or  demonstrations  that  can  avail 
against  it.  For  peoples  to  be  able  to  free  themselves 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         189 

from  the  yoke  of  an  idea,  either  centuries  or  violent 
revolutions  are  necessary ;  sometimes  the  two. 
Innumerable  are  the  chimeras  humanity  has  forged 
for  itself  and  of  which  in  succession  it  has  been  the 
victim. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  ROLE  OF  RELIGIOUS   BELIEFS  IN    THE 
EVOLUTION    OF   CIVILISATIONS 

Preponderating  influence  of  religious  ideas — They  have  always 
constituted  the  most  important  element  of  the  life  of  peoples — 
Religious  ideas  responsible  for  the  majority  of  historical  events  and 
social  and  political  institutions — A  new  civilisation  always  comes 
into  existence  with  a  new  religious  idea — Power  of  the  religious 
ideal — Its  influence  on  character — It  directs  all  the  faculties 
towards  the  same  end — The  political,  artistic,  and  literary  history 
of  peoples  is  the  offspring  of  their  beliefs — The  slightest  change  in 
the  state  of  a  people's  belief  results  in  an  entire  series  of 
transformations  in  its  existence — Various  examples. 

AMONG  the  various  ideas  by  which  the  peoples 
have  been  guided,  the  ideas  which  are  the 
beacons  of  history,  the  poles  of  civilisation,  religious 
ideas  have  played  too  preponderating  and  too 
fundamental  a  part  for  us  not  to  devote  a  special 
chapter  to  them. 

Religious  beliefs  have  always  constituted  the  most 
important  element   of    the   life   of  peoples,   and   in 

consequence  of  their  history.     The  most  considerable 

190 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  191 

historical  events,  those  which  have  had  the  most 
colossal  influence,  have  been  the  birth  and  death  of 
gods.  With  a  new  religious  idea  a  new  civilisation 
is  born  into  the  world.  At  all  the  ages  of  humanity, 
in  ancient  times  as  in  modern  times,  the  fundamental 
questions  have  always  been  religious  questions.  If 
humanity  could  allow  all  its  gods  to  die,  it  might  be 
said  of  such  an  event  that,  as  regards  its  consequences, 
it  would  be  the  most  important  event  that  had  taken 
place  on  the  surface  of  our  planet  since  the  birth  of 
the  first  civilisations. 

For  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  since  the  dawn 
of  historical  times,  all  political  and  social  institutions 
have  been  founded  on  religious  beliefs,  and  that  the 
gods  have  always  played  the  first  role  on  the  world's 
stage.  Apart  from  love,  which  itself  is  a  powerful 
but  personal  and  transitory  religion,  it  is  only 
religious  beliefs  that  are  capable  of  influencing 
character  in  a  rapid  manner.  The  conquests  of  the 
Arabs,  the  Crusades,  Spain  under  the  Inquisition, 
England  during  the  Puritan  period,  France  with  its 
St.  Bartholomew,  and  the  wars  of  the  revolution 
show  what  becomes  of  a  people  rendered  fanatic  by 
its  chimeras.  These  chimeras  exercise  a  sort  of 
permanent  hypnotic  effect  which  is  so  intense  that  it 


IQ2       THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

profoundly  transforms  the  entire  mental  constitution. 
Doubtless  it  is  man  who  created  the  gods,  but  after 
having  created  them  he  promptly  became  their  slave. 
They  are  not  the  offspring  of  fear,  as  Lucretius 
affirms,  but  of  hope,  and  for  this  reason  their  influence 
will  be  eternal. 

The  gift  of  the  gods  to  man,  and  it  is  a  gift  which 
they  alone  have  been  able  to  endow  him  with  up  to 
now,  is  a  state  of  mind  which  allows  of  happiness. 
No  philosophy  has  ever  been  able  as  yet  to  realise 
such  an  achievement. 

The  consequence,  if  not  the  aim,  of  all  civilisations, 
of  all  philosophies,  of  all  religions  is  to  engender 
certain  states  of  mind.  But  of  these  states  of  mind 
some  imply  happiness,  while  the  others  do  not 
Happiness  depends  very  little  on  exterior  circum- 
stances, and  to  a  very  great  extent  on  our  disposition 
of  spirit.  The  martyrs  at  the  stake  were  probably 
much  happier  than  their  executioners.  The  street- 
sweeper  who,  devoid  of  care,  eats  his  crust  of  bread 
rubbed  with  garlic  may  be  infinitely  happier  than  the 
millionaire  who  is  a  prey  to  manifold  anxieties. 

The  evolution  of  civilisation  has  unhappily  created 
for  the  modern  man  a  multitude  of  wants,  without 
giving  him  the  means  of  satisfying  them,  and  in  this 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         193 

way  has  promoted  general  discontent.  Civilisation  is 
doubtless  the  mother  of  progress,  but  it  is  the 
mother  as  well  of  Socialism  and  Anarchism,  those 
redoubtable  expressions  of  the  despair  of  the  masses 
that  are  no  longer  sustained  by  any  belief.  Compare 
the  restless,  feverish  European,  discontented  with  his 
lot,  with  the  Oriental,  always  satisfied  with  his 
destiny.  In  what  do  they  differ,  if  not  as  regards  the 
state  of  their  soul  ?  A  people  has  been  transformed 
when  its  mode  of  conceiving  and,  in  consequence,  of 
thinking  and  acting  has  been  transformed. 

Under  penalty  of  being  unable  to  last  for  long,  the 
primary  duty  of  a  society  is  to  endeavour  to  find  the 
means  of  creating  a  state  of  mind  which  shall  render 
man  happy.  All  the  societies  founded  up  to  the 
present  have  had  as  their  basis  an  ideal  capable  of 
subjugating  men's  souls,  and  they  have  always 
disappeared  as  soon  as  this  ideal  has  ceased  to 
subjugate  them. 

One  of  the  great  errors  of  modern  times  is  the 
belief  that  it  is  only  in  exterior  things  that  the  human 
soul  can  find  happiness.  Happiness  is  within  us, 
created  by  ourselves,  and  scarcely  ever  outside 
ourselves.  After  having  destroyed  the  ideals  of  past 
ages,  we  are  now  finding  that  it  is  not  possible  to 

14 


194  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

live  without  them,  and  that  the  secret  of  replacing 
them  must  be  discovered,  if  we  would  continue  to 
exist. 

The  true  benefactors  of  humanity,  those  who 
merit  colossal  statues  in  gold  raised  in  their  honour 
by  grateful  peoples,  are  those  powerful  magicians,  the 
creators  of  ideals,  whom  humanity  sometimes 
produces,  but  whom  it  produces  so  rarely.  Above 
the  torrent  of  vain  appearances,  standing  forth  the 
only  realities  man  can  ever  know,  above  the  inexorable, 
the  glacial  mechanism  of  the  world,  they  have  evoked 
powerful  and  pacifying  chimeras,  which  hide  from 
man  the  sombre  sides  of  his  destiny,  and  create  for 
him  enchanted  refuges  of  dreams  and  hope. 

From  the  exclusively  political  standpoint,  too,  it  is 
found  that  the  influence  of  religious  beliefs  is  immense. 
What  makes  their  irresistible  force  is  that  they 
constitute  the  only  factor  which  can  momentarily 
procure  a  people  absolute  community  of  interests, 
sentiments,  and  thoughts.  In  this  way  the  religious 
spirit  replaces  at  one  stroke  the  slow  hereditary 
accumulation  necessary  to  form  the  soul  of  a  nation, 
The  people  that  is  subjugated  by  a  belief  does  not 
doubtless  change  its  mental  constitution,  but  all  its 
faculties  are  directed  towards  the  same  end — the 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          195 

triumph  of  its  belief — and  solely  in  virtue  of  this  fact 
its  strength  becomes  formidable.  It  is  at  epochs  of 
ardent  faith  that  peoples,  momentarily  transformed, 
accomplish  those  prodigious  efforts,  found  those 
empires  which  are  the  astonishment  of  history.  It 
was  thus  that  a  few  Arab  tribes,  unified  by  the 
thought  of  Mahomet,  conquered  in  a  few  years  nations 
who  ignored  their  very  names,  and  founded  their 
immense  empire. 

It  is  not  the  quality  of  the  beliefs  that  must  be 
taken  into  consideration,  but  the  sway  they  exert 
over  men's  souls.  Whether  the  god  invoked  be 
Moloch,  or  some  other  yet  more  barbarous  divinity, 
is  of  no  importance.  It  is  even  well  for  the  prestige 
of  the  divinity  that  it  should  be  wholly  intolerant  and 
barbarous.  Gods  too  tolerant  or  too  mild  lend  their 
worshippers  no  strength.  The  sectaries  of  the  stern 
Mahomet  ruled  for  long  over  a  great  portion  of  the 
world,  and  are  still  redoubtable  ;  those  of  pacific 
Buddha  have  never  founded  anything  durable,  and 
are  already  forgotten  by  history. 

The  religious  spirit  then  has  played  a  political 
role  of  capital  importance  in  the  existence  of  peoples, 
because  it  was  always  the  only  factor  capable  of 
influencing  their  character  in  a  short  space  of  time. 


196  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

The  gods,  no  doubt,  are  not  immortal,  but  the 
religious  spirit  is  eternal.  It  may  slumber  for  a 
while,  but  it  awakes  as  soon  as  a  new  divinity  is 
created.  A  century  ago  it  enabled  France  to  resist 
victoriously  the  onslaughts  of  all  Europe  up  in  arms. 
Once  more  the  world  has  had  the  spectacle  of  what 
may  be  accomplished  by  the  religious  spirit,  for  it 
was  indeed  a  new  religion  that  was  founded  at  the 
period  in  question,  and  that  inspired  an  entire  people. 
The  divinities  that  blossomed  forth  were,  doubtless, 
too  fragile  to  last,  but  so  long  as  they  lasted  they 
exerted  absolute  sway. 

The  power  of  transforming  souls  possessed  by 
religions  is,  however,  somewhat  ephemeral.  It  is 
rare  for  beliefs  to  retain  for  any  length  of  time  that 
degree  of  intensity  which  entirely  transforms  char- 
acter. The  dream  ends  by  growing  more  shadowy, 
the  hypnotised  people  awakes  in  a  measure,  and  the 
old  substratum  of  character  again  comes  to  the  front. 

Even  in  cases  where  the  beliefs  are  all  powerful 
the  national  character  is  always  recognisable  in  the 
manner  in  which  these  beliefs  are  adopted  and  in  the 
manifestations  they  provoke.  What  differences  there 
are  between  the  same  belief  as  found  in  England, 
Spain,  or  France,  Would  the  Reformation  ever  have 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION          197 

been  possible  in  Spain,  or  would  England  ever  have 
consented  to  submit  to  the  terrible  yoke  of  the 
Inquisition  ?  Among  the  peoples  who  have  adopted 
the  reformed  faith  is  it  not  easy  to  perceive  the 
fundamental  characteristics  of  races  which,  in  spite  of 
the  hypnotising  action  of  their  beliefs,  have  preserved 
the  special  features  of  their  mental  constitution :  in- 
dependence, energy,  the  habit  of  reasoning,  and  of  not 
obeying  servilely  the  law  of  a  master  ? 

The  political,  artistic,  and  literary  history  of  peoples 
is  the  offspring  of  their  beliefs  ;  but  these  latter,  while 
they  modify  the  character,  are  also  profoundly  modi- 
fied by  it.  The  character  of  a  people  and  its  beliefs 
are  the  keys  of  its  destiny.  The  former,  as  regards 
its  fundamental  elements,  is  invariable,  and  it  is  pre- 
cisely because  it  does  not  vary  that  the  history  of  a 
people  always  retains  a  certain  unity.  The  beliefs,  on 
the  other  hand,  may  vary,  and  it  is  because  they  vary 
that  history  records  so  many  upheavals. 

The  slightest  change  in  the  state  of  a  people's 
beliefs  necessarily  results  in  an  entire  series  of  trans- 
formations in  its  existence.  We  remarked  in  a  previous 
chapter  that  in  France  the  men  of  the  eighteenth 
century  seemed  very  different  from  those  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Doubtless,  but  what  was  the 


198  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

origin  of  this  difference  ?  Solely  the  fact  that  in  the 
lapse  of  a  century  theology  had  given  way  to  science, 
reason  had  taken  the  place  of  tradition,  and  observed 
truth  that  of  revealed  truth.  By  this  simple  change 
of  conceptions  the  aspect  of  a  century  is  transformed, 
and  were  we  to  follow  its  effects  we  should  find  that 
our  great  Revolution,  together  with  the  events  that 
have  since  occurred  and  are  still  in  progress,  are 
the  mere  consequence  of  an  evolution  of  religious 
ideas. 

Moreover,  if  at  the  present  day  our  old  society 
totters  on  its  foundations  and  finds  all  its  institutions 
profoundly  shaken,  the  reason  is  that  it  is  losing  more 
and  more  the  beliefs  on  which  it  had  existed  up  till 
now.  When  it  shall  have  lost  them  entirely,  a  new 
civilisation,  founded  on  a  new  faith,  will  necessarily 
take  its  place.  History  shows  us  that  peoples  do  not 
long  survive  the  disappearance  of  their  gods.  The 
civilisations  that  are  born  with  them  also  die  with 
them.  There  is  nothing  so  destructive  as  the  dust 
of  dead  gods. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   ROLE   OF  GREAT  MEN   IN   THE   HISTORY  OF 
PEOPLES 

The  great  advances  made  by  each  civilisation  have  always  been 
realised  by  a  small  elite  of  superior  minds — Nature  of  their  role 
—They  synthesise  all  the  efforts  of  a  race — Examples  supplied  by 
great  discoveries — Political  role  of  great  men — They  embody  the 
dominant  ideal  of  their  race — Influence  of  the  great  hallucinated 
— Inventors  of  genius  transform  a  civilisation — The  fanatics  and 
the  hallucinated  make  history. 

WHEN  studying  the  hierarchy  and  the  differ- 
entiation of  races,  we  saw  that  what  most 
differentiates  Europeans  from  Orientals  is  that  only 
the  former  possess  an  elite  of  superior  men.  Let  us 
now  endeavour  to  trace  in  a  few  lines  the  limits  of  the 
role  of  this  Mite. 

The  small  phalanx  of  eminent  men  possessed  by  a 
civilised  people — a  phalanx  it  would  suffice  to  suppress 
in  each  generation  to  lower  considerably  the  intellec- 
tual level  of  that  people — constitutes  the  true  incarna- 

199 


200  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

tion  of  the  forces  of  a  race.  To  it  is  due  the  progress 
realised  in  the  sciences,  the  arts,  in  industry,  in  a 
word,  in  all  the  branches  of  civilisation. 

History  shows  that  it  is  to  this  circumscribed  elite 
that  we  owe  all  the  advances  made.  Although  they 
profit  by  these  advances,  the  masses  do  not  like  being 
surpassed,  and  the  greatest  thinkers  and  inventors 
have  often  been  their  martyrs.  And  yet  all  the 
generations,  all  the  past  of  a  race,  blossom  forth  in 
these  splendid  geniuses  which  are  the  marvellous 
flowers  of  a  race.  They  are  the  true  glory  of  a 
nation,  each  member  of  which,  down  to  the  most 
humble,  is  entitled  to  be  proud  of  them.  They  do 
not  appear  by  chance  or  by  a  miracle,  but  represent 
the  crowning  point  of  a  long  past.  They  synthesise 
the  greatness  of  their  time  and  of  their  race.  To 
favour  their  production  and  development  is  to  favour 
the  achievement  of  those  advances  of  which  humanity 
will  reap  the  benefit.  If  we  allow  ourselves  to  be  too 
much  blinded  by  our  dreams  of  universal  equality  we 
shall  be  the  first  victims  of  our  attitude.  Equality 
carries  inferiority  in  its  wake  ;  it  is  the  dull,  oppressive 
dream  of  vulgar  mediocrities.  It  has  only  been 
realised  in  barbarous  epochs.  For  equality  to  reign 
in  the  world,  it  would  be  necessary  to  bring  down, 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         201 

little  by  little,  whatever  makes  the  value  of  a  race  to 
the  level  of  what  is  least  elevated  in  the  race. 

But  while  the  role  of  superior  men  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  civilisation  is  considerable,  it  is  not,  how- 
ever, quite  what  it  is  generally  said  to  be.  Their 
action  consists,  I  repeat,  in  synthesising  all  the  efforts 
of  a  race  ;  their  discoveries  are  always  the  result  of  a 
long  series  of  anterior  discoveries  ;  they  build  an  edifice 
with  the  stones  which  others  have  slowly  hewn. 
Historians,  who  in  general  are  very  simple-minded, 
have  always  thought  it  right  to  connect  the  name  of 
a  man  with  each  invention  ;  and  yet,  of  the  great 
inventions  which  have  transformed  the  world,  such  as 
printing,  gunpowder,  steam,  or  the  electric  telegraph, 
there  is  not  one  of  which  it  can  be  said  that  it  was 
created  by  a  single  brain.  When  the  genesis  of  dis- 
coveries of  this  kind  are  studied,  it  is  always  found  that 
they  are  the  outcome  of  a  long  series  of  preparatory 
efforts :  the  final  invention  is  only  the  crowning 
stroke.  Galileo's  observation  of  the  isochronism  of 
the  oscillations  of  a  suspended  lamp  paved  the  way 
for  the  invention  of  chronometers,  which  were  to  enable 
sailors  to  trace  their  route  across  the  ocean  with 
certainty.  Gunpowder  resulted  from  slow  trans- 
formations of  Grecian  fire.  The  steam  engine  repre- 


202  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

sents  the  sum  of  a  series  of  inventions,  each  of  which 
demanded  immense  labour.  A  Greek,  had  he  had  a 
hundred  times  as  much  genius  as  Archimedes,  would 
have  been  unable  to  discover  the  locomotive  engine. 
Could  he  have  discovered  it,  moreover,  the  discovery 
would  have  been  of  no  use  to  him,  as,  to  fabricate  his 
engine,  he  would  have  had  to  wait  until  mechanics 
had  realised  advances  which  it  took  two  thousand 
years  of  efforts  to  achieve. 

The  political  role  of  great  statesmen,  while  it  is 
apparently  more  independent  of  the  past,  is,  never- 
theless, scarcely  less  dependent  thereon  than  is  the 
role  of  great  inventors.  Blinded  by  the  dazzling 
brilliancy  of  the  powerful  leaders  of  men  who  have 
transformed  the  political  existence  of  peoples,  such 
writers  as  Hegel,  Cousin,  Carlyle,  &c.,  have  wished  to 
make  of  them  demi-gods,  whose  unaided  genius  has 
modified  the  destiny  of  peoples.  Beyond  doubt  they 
can  affect  the  evolution  of  a  society,  but  it  is  not 
given  to  them  to  change  its  course.  The  genius  of  a 
Cromwell  or  a  Napoleon  is  powerless  to  achieve  such 
a  task.  Great  conquerors  can  destroy  towns,  men, 
and  empires  by  fire  and  sword  as  a  child  can  set  fire 
to  a  museum  filled  with  art  treasures  ;  but  this  de- 
structive power  must  not  deceive  us  as  to  the  nature 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         203 

of  their  role.  The  influence  of  great  politicians  is 
only  durable  when,  as  in  the  case  of  Caesar  or 
Richelieu,  they  contrive  to  give  their  efforts  a  direc- 
tion in  harmony  with  the  needs  of  the  moment ;  the 
true  cause  of  their  success  is  generally  much  anterior 
to  themselves.  Had  he  made  the  attempt  two  or 
three  centuries  earlier,  Caesar  would  not  have  made 
the  great  Roman  Republic  accept  the  law  of  a  master, 
and  under  the  same  conditions  Richelieu  would  have 
been  unable  to  realise  the  unity  of  France.  In 
politics  the  really  great  men  are  those  who  have  a 
presentiment  of  the  needs  that  are  about  to  arise,  of 
the  events  for  which  the  past  has  paved  the  way,  and 
who  show  their  fellows  the  direction  that  has  got  to 
be  taken.  This  direction,  perhaps,  was  clear  to 
nobody,  but  the  fatalities  of  evolution  were  soon  to 
engage  therein  the  peoples  whose  destinies  were 
momentarily  in  the  hands  of  these  powerful  geniuses. 
They,  too,  like  the  great  inventors,  synthesise  the 
results  of  a  long  anterior  evolution. 

These  analogies  between  the  different  categories  of 
great  men  must  not  be  carried  too  far.  The  inventors 
play  an  important  part  in  the  future  evolution  of  a 
civilisation,  but  no  immediate  role  in  the  political  his- 
tory of  peoples.  The  superior  men  to  whom  are  due 


204  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

the  important  discoveries,  from  the  plough  to  the 
telegraph,  which  are  the  common  patrimony  of 
humanity,  have  never  possessed  the  qualities  of 
character  requisite  for  the  founding  of  a  religion  or 
the  conquest  of  an  empire,  necessary,  that  is,  to 
change  visibly  the  face  of  history.  The  thinker  is 
too  alive  to  the  complexity  of  problems  ever  to  have 
very  strong  convictions,  and  too  few  political  ends 
seem  to  him  worthy  of  his  efforts  for  him  to  attempt 
to  realise  any  one  of  them.  Inventors  may  modify 
a  civilisation  in  the  long  run  ;  it  is  only  fanatics,  men 
of  narrow  intelligence,  but  energetic  character  and 
powerful  passions,  who  are  capable  of  founding 
religions  and  empires.  At  the  bidding  of  a  Peter 
the  Hermit  millions  of  men  hurled  themselves  against 
the  East ;  the  words  of  an  hallucinated  enthusiast 
such  as  Mahomet  created  a  force  capable  of  triumph- 
ing over  the  old  Greco-Roman  world  ;  an  obscure 
monk  like  Luther  bathed  Europe  in  blood.  The 
voice  of  a  Galileo  or  a  Newton  will  never  have  the 
least  echo  among  the  masses.  The  inventors  of 
genius  hasten  the  march  of  civilisation.  The  fanatics 
and  the  hallucinated  create  history. 

For    of   what    is    history,    as    written    in    books, 
composed,   if    not   of   the   long   narrative   of  man's 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         205 

struggles  to  create  an  ideal,  to  worship  it,  and 
then  to  destroy  it  ?  And,  in  the  eyes  of  science, 
have  such  ideals  more  value  than  the  vain  mirages 
created  by  the  action  of  light  on  the  moving  sands 
of  the  desert? 

Still  it  is  the  hallucinated,  the  creators  or  propa- 
gators of  these  mirages,  who  have  effected  the  most 
far-reaching  transformations  in  the  world.  From  the 
depth  of  their  tombs  they  still  inflict  the  yoke  of 
their  thoughts  on  the  soul  of  races,  and  influence  the 
character  and  destiny  of  peoples.  The  importance  of 
their  role  must  not  be  overlooked  ;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  task  they 
accomplished  was  successfully  accomplished  because 
they  unconsciously  embodied  and  expressed  the  ideal 
of  their  race  and  their  epoch.  A  people  is  only  led 
by  those  who  embody  its  dreams.  Moses  represented 
for  the  Jews  the  desire  for  deliverance  over  which 
they  had  brooded  during  the  years  that  they  were 
slaves  lacerated  by  the  whips  of  the  Egyptians. 
Buddha  and  Jesus  were  alive  to  the  infinite  miseries 
of  their  time,  and  gave  a  religious  shape  to  the  need 
for  charity  and  pity,  which,  at  these  periods  of 
universal  suffering,  were  coming  into  existence  in  the 
world.  Mahomet  realised  by  means  of  unity  of  belief 


206  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

the  political  unity  of  a  people  divided  into  thousands 
of  rival  tribes.  That  soldier  of  genius,  Napoleon, 
embodied  the  ideal  of  military  glory,  of  vanity,  and 
of  revolutionary  propaganda,  which  at  the  time  were 
the  characteristics  of  the  people  he  led  all  over 
Europe  during  fifteen  years  in  pursuit  of  wild 
adventures. 

At  bottom,  then,  it  is  ideas,  and  in  consequence 
those  who  embody  and  propagate  them  that  rule  the 
world.  Their  triumph  is  assured  when  they  are 
defended  by  the  hallucinated  and  by  enthusiasts. 
It  is  of  slight  importance  whether  they  be  true  or 
false.  History  ever  teaches  us  that  it  is  the  most 
chimerical  ideas  that  have  had  the  most  fanatical 
following  and  played  the  most  important  role.  It  is 
in  the  name  of  the  most  illusory  chimeras  that  the 
world  has  been  hitherto  thrown  into  confusion,  that 
civilisations  which  seemed  imperishable  have  been 
destroyed,  and  that  others  have  been  founded.  It 
is  not,  as  the  Gospel  assures  us,  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  of  the  earth,  that  belongs  to  the  poor 
in  spirit,  only  provided  they  possess  the  faith  that 
moves  mountains.  Philosophers,  who  often  have  to 
devote  centuries  to  destroying  what  enthusiasts  have 
created  in  a  day,  ought  to  bow  before  those  who  are 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         207 

capable  of  such  feats.  The  enthusiasts  form  part  of 
the  mysterious  forces  that  shape  the  world.  They 
have  determined  the  most  important  of  the  events  of 
which  history  records  the  course. 

Doubtless  they  have  only  propagated  illusions,  but 
it  is  on  these  illusions,  at  once  redoubtable,  seductive, 
and  vain,  that  humanity  has  hitherto  existed,  and 
doubtless  will  continue  to  exist.  These  illusions  are 
mere  shadows,  but  they  must  nevertheless  be 
respected.  Thanks  to  them  our  forefathers  knew 
what  hope  was,  and  in  their  heroic  and  wild  pursuit 
of  these  shadows  they  raised  us  from  our  primitive 
state  of  barbarism  to  the  point  we  have  reached  to- 
day. Of  all  the  factors  in  the  development  of 
civilisations,  illusions  are  perhaps  the  most  powerful. 
It  was  an  illusion  that  built  up  the  pyramids,  and 
covered  Egypt  for  five  thousand  years  with  colossal 
stone  monuments.  It  was  an  illusion  that,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  raised  our  gigantic  cathedrals,  and 
induced  the  Western  world  to  dispute  the  possession 
of  a  tomb  with  the  East.  It  is  the  pursuit  of  illusions 
that  has  founded  the  religions  which  exert  their 
sway  over  a  half  of  humanity,  and  founded  or 
destroyed  the  vastest  empires.  It  is  not  in  the 
pursuit  of  truth  but  in  that  of  error  that  humanity 


208  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

has  expended  the  most  efforts.  It  could  not  attain 
the  chimerical  goals  it  had  in  view ;  but  it  was  in 
trying  to  attain  them  that  it  realised  all  the  progress 
it  had  no  thought  of  achieving. 


BOOK  V 

THE    DISSOCIATION    OF    THE    CHARACTER    OF 
RACES  AND   THEIR  DECADENCE 


209 


BOOK    V 

THE  DISSOCIATION  OF   THE  CHARACTER   OF  RACES 
AND   THEIR  DECADENCE 


CHAPTER    I 

HOW   CIVILISATIONS   FADE  AWAY  AND   DIE   OUT 

Dissolution  of  psychological  species — How  hereditary  dispositions 
which  had  required  centuries  for  their  formation  may  be  rapidly 
lost— A  very  long  time  is  always  necessary  for  a  people  to  raise 
itself  to  a  high  level  of  civilisation,  and  in  some  cases  a  very 
short  time  for  it  to  descend  therefrom — The  principal  factor  in 
the  decadence  of  a  people  is  the  lowering  of  its  character — The 
mechanism  of  the  dissolution  of  civilisations  has  hitherto  been 
the  same  for  all  peoples — Symptoms  of  decadence  presented  by 
some  Latin  peoples — Development  of  egoism — Diminution  of 
initiative  and  will  power — Lowering  of  character  and  morality — 
The  youth  of  the  present  day — Probable  influence  of  Socialism — 
Its  dangers  and  its  strength — How  it  will  cause  the  civilisations 
that  undergo  it  to  return  to  wholly  barbarous  forms  of  evolution — 
The  peoples  among  whom  it  will  be  able  to  triumph. 

T)SYCHOLOGICAL  species  are  not  eternal  any 
A        more  than  are  anatomical  species.     The  con- 
ditions of  environment  which  maintain  the  fixity  of 
their   characteristics   do   not   last   for  ever.      If  the 


2J2  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

environment  is  modified,  the  elements  of  the  mental 
constitution  which  it  has  determined  end  by  under- 
going retrograde  transformations  which  lead  up  to 
their  disappearance.  In  accordance  with  physio- 
logical laws,  as  applicable  to  the  cells  of  the  brain 
as  to  those  of  the  body,  and  observed  in  all  beings, 
the  organs  take  infinitely  less  time  to  disappear  than 
was  required  for  their  formation.  Every  organ  that 
does  not  fulfil  its  function  soon  ceases  to  be  able  to 
fulfil  it.  The  eyes  of  fish  that  live  in  the  lakes  of 
caverns  lose  the  power  of  sight  after  a  time,  and  this 
infirmity  ends  by  becoming  hereditary.  Indeed, 
even  if  observation  be  confined  to  the  brief  life  of  the 
individual,  an  organ  that  has,  perhaps,  demanded 
thousands  of  centuries  for  its  formation  by  slow 
adaptations  and  hereditary  accumulations,  is  rapidly 
stricken  with  atrophy  when  it  ceases  to  be  used. 

The  mental  constitution  of  beings  cannot  escape 
these  physiological  laws.  The  brain  cell  that  is  not 
utilised  ceases  to  fulfil  its  functions,  and  mental 
dispositions  it  took  centuries  to  form  may  be 
promptly  lost.  Courage,  initiative,  energy,  the  spirit 
of  enterprise,  and  various  qualities  of  character  that 
were  a  long  time  in  being  acquired  disappear  quickly 
enough  when  they  cease  to  be  exercised.  This  fact 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         213 

explains  how  it  is  that  a  people  always  requires  a 
very  long  time  to  raise  itself  to  a  high  level  of  culture, 
and  in  some  cases  a  very  short  time  to  descend  into 
the  abyss  of  decadence. 

When  the  causes  are  examined  that  led  to  the 
successive  ruin  of  the  various  peoples  with  which 
history  is  concerned,  whether  the  people  in  question 
be  the  Persians,  the  Romans,  or  any  other  nation, 
the  fundamental  factor  in  their  fall  is  always  found 
to  be  a  change  in  their  mental  constitution  resulting 
from  the  deterioration  of  their  character.  I  cannot 
call  to  mind  a  single  people  that  has  disappeared  in 
consequence  of  the  deterioration  of  its  intelligence. 

For  all  the  civilisations  of  the  past  the  mechanism 
of  dissolution  has  been  identical,  so  identical,  indeed, 
that  it  may  be  asked  with  the  poet,  whether  history, 
which  has  so  many  books,  has  but  a  single  page. 
When  a  people  reaches  that  degree  of  civilisation  and 
power  at  which  it  is  assured  that  it  is  no  longer 
exposed  to  the  attacks  of  its  neighbours,  it  begins  to 
enjoy  the  benefits  of  peace  and  material  well-being 
procured  by  wealth.  At  this  juncture  the  military 
virtues  decline,  the  excess  of  civilisation  creates  new 
needs,  and  egoism  increases.  Having  no  ideal 
beyond  the  hasty  enjoyment  of  rapidly  acquired 


2i4  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

advantages,  the  citizens  abandon  to  the  State  the 
care  of  public  affairs,  and  soon  lose  all  the  qualities 
that  had  made  their  greatness.  Then  barbarian,  or 
semi-barbarian  neighbours,  whose  needs  are  few,  but 
who  are  strongly  attached  to  an  ideal,  invade  the  too 
civilised  people,  and  proceed  to  form  a  new  civilisation 
with  the  debris  of  that  which  they  have  overthrown. 
It  was  in  this  way  that,  in  spite  of  the  formidable 
organisations  of  the  Romans  and  Persians,  the 
barbarians  destroyed  the  Empire  of  the  former  and 
the  Arabs  that  of  the  latter.  It  was  not  in  the 
qualities  appertaining  to  the  intelligence  that  the 
invaded  peoples  were  lacking.  From  this  point  of 
view  no  comparison  was  possible  between  the  con- 
querors and  the  conquered.  It  was  when  Rome 
already  bore  within  it  the  germs  of  its  approaching 
decadence  that  it  counted  the  greatest  number  of 
men  of  culture,  artists,  men  of  letters,  and  men  of 
learning.  Almost  all  the  works  that  have  made  its 
greatness  date  from  this  period  of  its  history.  But 
Rome  had  lost  that  fundamental  element  which  no 
development  of  the  intelligence  can  replace  :  character.1 

luThe  evil  from  which  Roman  society  was  then  suffering,"  writes 
M.  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  "was  not  the  corruption  of  its  morals  ;  it  was 
the  weakening  of  its  will  power,  and,  so  to  speak,  the  enervation  of  its 
character." 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         215 

The  old-time  Romans  had  very  few  wants  and  a  very 
strong  ideal.  This  ideal — the  greatness  of  Rome — 
absolutely  dominated  their  souls,  and  each  citizen  was 
ready  to  sacrifice  to  it  his  family,  his  fortune,  and  his 
life.  When  Rome  had  become  the  pole  of  the 
universe,  the  richest  city  of  the  world,  it  was  invaded 
by  foreigners  hailing  from  all  countries,  and  whom  it 
admitted  in  the  end  to  rights  of  citizenship.  As  all 
they  demanded  was  to  be  allowed  to  enjoy  the 
luxury  of  Rome,  they  had  but  little  concern  for  its 
glory.  The  great  city  then  became  an  immense 
caravansary,  but  was  no  longer  Rome.  It  seemed 
to  be  still  alive,  but  its  soul  had  long  been 
dead. 

Analogous  causes  of  decadence  threaten  our  hyper- 
refined  civilisations,  which  are  menaced,  however,  as 
well  by  other  causes  due  to  the  evolution  produced 
in  men's  minds  by  modern  scientific  discoveries. 
Science  has  renewed  our  ideas,  and  deprived  our 
religious  and  social  conceptions  of  all  authority. 
It  has  shown  man  the  trifling  place  he  occupies  in  the 
universe,  and  the  utter  indifference  of  Nature  towards 
him.  He  has  perceived  that  what  he  used  to  term 
liberty  was  merely  ignorance  of  the  causes  of  which 
he  is  the  slave,  and  that  in  view  of  the  inexorable 


216  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

necessities  of  which  they  are  the  puppets,  to  be 
slaves  is  the  natural  condition  of  all  living  beings. 
He  has  learned  that  nature  ignores  what  we  term 
pity,  and  that  all  the  progress  it  has  realised 
has  been  due  to  a  pitiless  process  of  selection  that 
involves  the  perpetual  crushing  of  the  weak  by  the 
strong. 

All  these  harsh  and  glacial  conceptions,  so  contrary 
to  the  teachings  of  the  old  beliefs  that  enchanted  our 
forefathers,  have  given  birth  to  ominous  conflicts  in 
men's  souls.  In  vulgar  brains  they  have  engendered 
that  state  of  anarchy  as  regards  his  ideas  which  seems 
characteristic  of  the  modern  man.  In  the  case  of  the 
young  generation  of  artists  and  men  of  letters,  these 
same  conflicts  have  resulted  in  a  sort  of  sullen  in- 
difference that  is  fatal  to  the  will,  in  an  utter 
incapacity  to  embrace  any  cause  whatever  with 
enthusiasm,  and  in  an  exclusive  cult  of  immediate 
and  personal  interests. 

Commenting  upon  a  very  just  reflection  of  a  modern 
writer  to  the  effect  that  the  "  sense  of  the  relative 
dominates  contemporary  thought,"  a  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction  proclaimed  with  evident  satis- 
faction in  a  recent  speech  that  "the  substitution  of 
relative  ideas  for  abstract  notions  in  every  field  of 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         217 

human  knowledge  is  the  greatest  conquest  of  science." 
The  conquest  declared  to  be  new  is  in  reality  very 
old.  It  was  achieved  many  centuries  ago  by  the 
philosophers  of  India.  Let  us  not  be  too  ready  to 
congratulate  ourselves  that  it  is  tending  at  the  present 
day  to  gain  ground.  The  real  danger  to  modern 
societies  lies  precisely  in  the  fact  that  men  have  lost 
confidence  in  the  worth  of  the  principles  that  serve  as 
their  foundations.  I  greatly  doubt  whether  it  would 
be  possible  to  cite  in  all  history  a  single  civilisation, 
a  single  institution,  a  single  belief  that  has  succeeded 
in  holding  its  own  by  taking  its  stand  on  principles 
esteemed  to  have  only  a  relative  value.  Moreover,  if 
the  future  seems  to  belong  to  those  socialist  doctrines 
which  reason  condemns,  it  is  because  they  are  the 
only  doctrines  whose  upholders  speak  in  the  name  of 
truths  they  declare  to  be  absolute.  The  masses  will 
always  turn  towards  those  who  speak  to  them  of 
absolute  truths,  and  will  slight  all  others.  To  be  a 
statesman,  it  is  necessary  to  be  able  to  penetrate  the 
soul  of  the  multitude,  to  understand  its  dreams, 
and  to  renounce  philosophic  abstractions.  Things 
in  themselves  change  but  little.  It  is  only  the  ideas 
that  are  formed  of  them  that  change  greatly.  It  is 
on  these  ideas  that  it  is  needful  to  know  how  to  act. 


218  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

Doubtless  our  knowledge  of  the  real  world  is 
limited  to  appearances,  to  mere  states  of  conscience 
of  which  the  value  is  evidently  relative.  But  when 
we  adopt  the  social  standpoint,  we  can  say  that  for  a 
given  age  and  a  given  society  there  are  conditions  of 
existence,  moral  laws,  and  institutions  which  have  an 
absolute  value,  since  the  society  in  question  could  not 
subsist  without  them.  As  soon  as  this  value  is  called 
in  question,  or  doubt  enters  men's  minds,  the  society 
is  condemned  to  an  early  death. 

The  truths  just  enunciated  may  be  inculcated 
without  fear,  for  they  are  among  those  which  no 
science  can  contest.  Contrary  language  can  only 
bring  about  the  most  disastrous  consequences.  The 
philosophic  Nihilism,  propagated  at  the  present  day 
by  authorised  voices  among  weak  minds,  induces 
them  to  believe  at  once  in  the  absolute  injustice  of 
our  social  system  and  in  the  absurdity  of  all 
monarchies,  inspires  them  with  a  hatred  of  all  that 
exists,  and  leads  them  directly  to  socialism  and 
anarchism.  Modern  statesmen  are  too  persuaded 
of  the  influence  of  institutions  and  too  little  of  the 
influence  of  ideas.  And  yet  science  shows  them  that 
the  former  are  always  the  offspring  of  the  latter,  and 
have  never  been  able  to  subsist  without  leaning  on 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         219 

them  as  a  foundation.  Ideas  represent  the  invisible 
springs  of  things.  When  they  have  disappeared 
the  underlying  supports  of  constitutions  and  civilisa- 
tions are  destroyed.  It  was  always  a  redoubtable 
moment  for  a  people  when  its  old  ideas  descended 
into  the  sombre  necropolis  where  the  dead  gods 
repose. 

Going  on  from  the  causes  to  study  the  effects,  it 
has  to  be  admitted  that  visible  decadence  seriously 
threatens  the  vitality  of  the  majority  of  the  great 
European  nations,  and  especially  of  those  known  as 
the  Latin  nations,  and  really  Latin  nations,  if  not  as 
regards  their  blood,  at  least  as  regards  their  traditions 
and  education.  Every  day  they  are  losing  their 
initiative,  their  energy,  their  will,  and  their  capacity 
to  act.  The  satisfaction  of  perpetually  growing 
material  wants  tends  to  become  their  sole  ideal. 
The  family  is  breaking  up,  the  social  springs  are 
strained.  Discontent  and  unrest  are  spreading  to 
all  classes,  from  the  richest  to  the  poorest.  Like  the 
ship  that  has  lost  its  compass,  and  strays  as  chance 
and  the  winds  direct,  the  modern  man  wanders  at 
haphazard  through  the  spaces  formerly  peopled  by 
the  gods  and  rendered  a  desert  by  science.  He  has 
lost  his  faith,  and  with  it  his  hopes.  The  masses, 


220  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

grown  excessively  impressionable  and  changeable, 
and  no  longer  kept  in  check  by  any  barrier,  seem 
fated  to  oscillate  without  intermission  between  the 
wildest  anarchy  and  the  most  oppressive  despotism. 
Words  will  turn  their  heads,  but  their  divinities  of  a 
day  are  soon  their  victims.  In  appearance  they  seem 
ardently  to  desire  liberty;  in  reality  they  will  have 
none  of  it,  and  they  are  incessantly  appealing  to  the 
State  to  forge  them  chains.  They  yield  blind  obedi- 
ence to  the  obscurest  sectaries,  to  the  most  narrow- 
minded  despots.  The  rhetoricians  who  imagine  they 
lead  the  masses,  but  who  most  often  follow  them, 
confound  the  impatience  and  nervousness  that  find 
vent  in  an  incessant  desire  for  a  change  of  master 
with  the  true  spirit  of  independence  that  girds  against 
any  master  whatever.  The  State,  whatever  be  the 
nominal  regime,  is  the  divinity  towards  which  all 
parties  turn.  It  is  the  State  that  is  appealed  to  for 
regulations  and  protection,  every  day  more  oppres- 
sive, that  surround  the  most  trivial  acts  of  existence 
with  the  most  Byzantine  and  tyrannical  formalities. 
The  younger  generations  are  more  and  more  disposed 
to  renounce  careers  demanding  judgment,  initiative, 
energy,  personal  efforts,  and  will.  The  slightest 
reponsibility  alarms  them.  They  are  content  with 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         221 

the  mediocre  prospects  offered  them  by  State-paid 
employment.  The  commercial  classes  ignore  the 
colonies,  which  are  solely  peopled  by  functionaries.1 
Energy  and  action  have  been  replaced  among  states- 
men by  terribly  empty  personal  discussions,  in  the 
case  of  the  masses  by  passing  enthusiasms  or  hatreds, 
in  the  case  of  men  of  letters  by  a  sort  of  tearful, 
vague,  and  unfruitful  sentimentalism,  and  by  colour- 
less dissertations  on  the  miseries  of  existence.  A 
boundless  egoism  is  developing  on  all  sides.  The 
individual  is  coming  to  be  solely  preoccupied  with 
himself.  Consciences  are  capitulating,  and  morality 

1  In  a  speech  pronounced  in  the  Chamber  01  Deputies  on  November 
27,  1890,  by  M.  Etienne,  at  the  time  Under  Secretary  for  the  Colonies, 
I  note  the  following  very  characteristic  passage,  which  I  borrow  from 
the  newspaper  Le  Siecle : — 

"  Cochin  China  has  1,800,000  inhabitants  ;  of  this  number  1,600  are 
Frenchmen,  1,200  of  whom  are  functionaries.  The  country  is  adminis- 
tered by  a  colonial  council  elected  by  these  1,200  functionaries.  It  has 
a  Deputy.  And  you  are  surprised  that  anarchy  reigns  in  the  country  ! 
(Exclamations  and  laughter  on  a  great  number  of  benches. ) 

"...  Are  you  aware  what  is  the  outcome  of  such  a  system?  Its 
outcome  is  this  phenomenon,  that  nine  millions  out  of  a  budget  reduced 
to  twenty-two  millions  is  absorbed  by  the  expenses  in  connection  with 
the  functionaries. 

"Yes,  in  1877,  I  tried  to  reduce  the  number  of  functionaries.  I 
reduced  the  expenses  by  3,500,000  francs  out  of  a  total  of  nine 
millions.  I  took  this  measure  in  the  month  of  October.  In  De- 
cember the  Cabinet  of  which  I  was  a  member  was  overthrown, 
and  in  the  following  March  the  functionaries  I  had  suppressed  were 
reinstated." 


222  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

is  deteriorating  and  gradually  dying  out.1  The 
individual  is  losing  all  empire  over  himself.  He 
can  no  longer  govern  himself,  and  the  man  who 
cannot  govern  himself  must  inevitably  come  before 
long  to  be  governed  by  others. 

1  This  lowering  of  morality  is  serious  when  observed  in  professions 
such  as  the  magistracy  and  the  profession  of  notary,  in  which  honesty 
used  to  be   as   general  as  courage  among  soldiers.      As  regards  the 
notaries  morality  has  at  present  descended  to  a  very  low  level.     The 
official  statisticians  affirm  "that  among  notaries  there  is  a  proportion  of 
43  accused  persons  out  of  10,000  individuals,  whereas  the  average  for 
the  whole  population  of  France  is  one  accused  person  for  the  same 
number  of  individuals."     In  a  report  addressed  to  the  President  of  the 
Republic  by  the  Minister  of  Justice  and  published  in  the  Journal  Officiel, 
January  31,  1890,  I  find  the  following  passage  :  "The  disasters  which 
as  early  as  1840  had  begun  to  inspire  the   public  with  uneasiness 
increased   progressively  to   such   a   degree   that   in    1876   one   of  my 
predecessors  had  to  call  the  special  attention  of  the  magistrates  to  the 
situation   of  the   notaries.      The   dismissal   of    notaries   and   notarial 
catastrophes  were  occurring   with  unaccustomed  frequency  and  under 
circumstances  of  great  gravity.     The  number  of  disasters  rose  succes- 
sively from  31  in  1882  to  41  in  1883,  to  54  in  1884,  to  71  in  1886,  and 
the  total  embezzlements  committed  by  notaries  amounted  to  62,000,000 
francs  for  the  period  between  1880  and  1886.     Finally,  in  1889,  103 
notaries  were  dismissed  or  obliged  to  give  up  their  practice."    If  we  con- 
nect with  these  facts  the  successive  ruin  of  our  most  important  financial 
enterprises  (the  Comtoir  d'Escompte,  the  Depots  et  Comptes  Courants, 
Panama,  etc.),  it   can   only   be   admitted   that   the   invectives  of  the 
Socialists  against  the  morality  of  the  leading  classes  are  not  without 
foundation.     The  same  symptoms  of  demoralisation  are  unfortunately 
to  be  observed  among  all  the  Latin  peoples.     The   scandal  of  the 
Italian  State  banks,  in  which  robbery  was   practised  on  an  immense 
scale  by  politicians  of  the  foremost  rank,  the  bankruptcy  of  Portugal, 
the   wretched   financial   situation   of  Spain   and   Italy,    the   profound 
decadence  of  the  Latin  republics  of  America,  prove  that  the  character 
and  morality  of  certain  peoples  have  sustained  incurable  injury,  and 
that  their  role  in  the  world  is  nearly  at  an  end. 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION        223 

To  change  all  this  would  be  a  hard  task.  It  would 
be  necessary  to  change  first  of  all  our  lamentable 
Latin  education.  It  is  fatal  to  any  initiative  and 
energy  that  heredity  may  have  spared.  It  extin- 
guishes every  gleam  of  intellectual  independence  by 
giving  young  people  as  their  sole  ideal  hateful 
examinations,  which,  as  they  only  demand  efforts  of 
the  memory,  place  in  the  front  rank  of  our  professions 
intelligences  whose  servile  aptitude  for  imitation  is  the 
negation  of  all  individuality  and  all  personal  efforts. 
"  I  try  to  pour  iron  into  the  soul  of  my  pupils,"  said 
an  English  schoolmaster  to  Guizot,  when  he  was 
visiting  the  schools  of  Great  Britain.  Where  among 
the  Latin  nations  are  the  schoolmasters  or  the  pro- 
grammes capable  of  realising  such  an  ambition  ? 
The  military  regime  will  perhaps  realise  it.  In  any 
case  it  is  the  sole  educator  that  is  capable  of  realising 
it.  One  of  the  principal  conditions  of  improvement 
for  decadent  peoples  is  the  organisation  of  a  very 
severe  universal  military  service  and  the  permanent 
menace  of  disastrous  wars. 

It  is  to  this  general  lowering  of  character,  to  the 
powerlessness  of  the  citizens  to  govern  themselves 
and  to  this  egoistic  indifference,  that  is  more  espe- 
cially due  the  difficulty  experienced  by  the  majority 


224  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

of  the  Latin  peoples  in  living  under  liberal  laws  as 
far  removed  from  despotism  as  from  anarchy.  It  is 
easily  understandable  that  such  laws  should  be  little 
to  the  liking  of  the  masses,  for  Caesarism  holds  out  to 
them  the  promise  if  not  of  liberty,  on  which  they  do 
not  set  much  store,  at  any  rate  of  a  very  considerable 
measure  of  equality  in  servitude.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  would  be  incomprehensible  that  republican  insti- 
tutions should  encounter  most  opposition  from  the 
enlightened  classes,  but  for  the  necessity  of  taking 
into  account  the  weight  of  ancestral  influences.  Is  it 
not  with  such  institutions  that  all  forms  of  superiority, 
and  intellectual  superiority  in  particular,  have  most 
chance  of  being  able  to  display  themselves  ?  It  might 
even  be  said  that  the  only  real  objection  to  such 
institutions,  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  who 
stand  out  for  equality  at  any  price,  is  the  fact  that 
they  favour  the  formation  of  powerful  intellectual 
aristocracies.  The  most  oppressive  of  regimes,  on 
the  contrary,  both  for  character  and  for  the  intelli- 
gence, is  Caesarism  in  its  various  forms.  All  that 
can  be  said  for  it  is  that  it  facilitates  equality  in 
degradation  and  humility  in  servitude.  It  is  well 
adapted  to  the  inferior  minds  of  decadent  peoples, 
and  that  is  why  they  always  revert  to  it  as  soon  as 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         225 

they  are  able.  The  plume  of  the  first  general  that 
comes  along  will  be  made  the  excuse  for  its  adoption. 
When  a  people  has  reached  this  pass  its  hour  has 
struck,  its  destiny  is  accomplished. 

At  the  present  hour  this  old-time  Caesarism,  which 
history  has  always  seen  appear  at  the  earliest  dawn 
of  civilisations  and  at  their  extreme  decadence,  is 
undergoing  a  manifest  evolution.  To-day  we  are  wit- 
nessing its  resurrection  under  the  name  of  Socialism. 
This  new  expression  of  State  absolutism  will  as- 
suredly be  the  most  grievous  form  of  Caesarism, 
because,  being  impersonal,  it  will  escape  all  the 
motives  of  fear  that  keep  the  worst  tyrants  under 
restraint. 

Socialism  appears  to-day  to  be  the  gravest  of  the 
dangers  that  threaten  the  European  peoples.  It  will 
doubtless  complete  a  decadence  for  which  many 
causes  are  paving  the  way,  and  it  will  perhaps  mark 
the  end  of  Western  civilisation. 

To  appreciate  its  dangers  and  its  strength,  it  is  not 
the  teachings  it  spreads  abroad  that  must  be  con- 
sidered, but  the  devotion  it  inspires.  Socialism  will 
soon  constitute  the  new  faith  of  the  suffering  masses 
whose  existence  is  often  and  inevitably  rendered  far 

from  enviable   by  the   economic  conditions  of  con- 

16 


226  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

temporary  civilisation.  It  will  be  the  new  religion 
that  will  people  the  empty  heavens.  For  all  the 
human  creatures  who  cannot  support  misery  un- 
relieved by  illusion  this  religion  will  replace  the 
luminous  paradise  of  which  the  painted  windows  of 
the  churches  spoke  to  them  in  the  past.  This  great 
religious  entity  of  to-morrow  sees  the  crowd  of  its 
faithful  increase  every  day.  It  will  soon  have  its 
martyrs,  and  it  will  then  become  one  of  those 
religious  creeds  which  stir  up  peoples,  and  whose 
power  over  souls  is  absolute. 

That  the  dogmas  of  Socialism  lead  to  a  regime 
of  degrading  slavery  which  will  destroy  all  initiative 
and  all  independence  in  the  souls  bowed  beneath  its 
empire  is  doubtless  evident,  but  only  for  psycholo- 
gists acquainted  with  the  condition  of  man's  existence. 
Such  foresight  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  masses. 
They  require  arguments  of  a  different  order  to  per- 
suade them,  and  these  arguments  have  never  been 
furnished  by  reason. 

That  the  new  dogmas  we  see  coming  into  being 
are  contrary  to  the  most  elementary  good  sense  is 
also  evident.  But  were  not  the  religious  dogmas  that 
have  guided  men  during  so  many  centuries  also 
contrary  to  good  sense,  and  has  the  fact  hindered 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         227 

them  from  subjecting  the  most  luminous  geniuses 
to  their  laws  ?  In  the  matter  of  his  beliefs  man  only 
hearkens  to  the  unconscious  voice  of  his  sentiments. 
They  form  an  obscure  domain"  from  which  reason  has 
always  been  excluded. 

In  consequence  and  by  the  mere  fact  of  the  mental 
constitution  created  them  by  a  long  past,  the  peoples 
of  Europe  will  be  obliged  to  undergo  the  redoubtable 
phase  of  Socialism.  It  will  be  the  signal  for  their 
entry  on  one  of  the  last  stages  of  decadence.  By 
causing  civilisation  to  revert  to  wholly  inferior  forms 
of  evolution,  it  will  facilitate  the  destructive  invasions 
by  which  we  are  threatened. 

Outside  Russia,  whose  population  from  the  psycho- 
logical point  of  view  is  much  more  Asiatic  than 
European,  the  English  would  seem  to  be  almost 
the  only  race  in  Europe  possessing  sufficient  energy, 
stable  enough  beliefs,  and  a  sufficiently  independent 
character  to  avoid  succumbing  to  the  new  religion 
the  birth  of  which  we  are  witnessing.  Modern 
Germany,  in  spite  of  deceptive  appearances  of 
prosperity,  will  doubtless  be  its  first  victim,  judging 
from  the  success  of  the  various  sects  that  abound 
within  its  frontiers.  The  Socialism  that  will  prove 
its  ruin  will  doubtless  be  couched  in  strictly  scientific 


228  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  : 

formulae,  of  value  at  the  best  for  an  ideal  society  such 
as  humanity  will  never  produce,  but  this  latest  child  of 
pure  reason  will  be  more  intolerant  and  more  redoubt- 
able than  all  its  elders.  No  people  is  so  well  prepared 
as  Germany  to  accept  its  yoke.  No  people  of  the 
present  age  has  more  entirely  lost  its  initiative,  its 
independence,  and  the  habit  of  self-government.1 

As  to  Russia,  it  has  evolved  too  recently  from  the 
regime  of  the  "mir,"  that  is  to  say,  from  primitive 
Communism,  the  most  perfect  form  of  Socialism,  to 
return  to  this  inferior  stage  of  evolution.  It  has  other 
destinies.  It  is  doubtless  Russia  that  will  one  day 
furnish  the  irresistible  flood  of  barbarians  destined  to 
destroy  the  old  civilisations  of  the  West,  whose  end 
will  have  been  led  up  to  by  economic  struggles  and 
Socialism. 

This   hour,  however,  has  not  struck  as  yet.     To 

1  The  most  eminent  German  writers  are  perfectly  agreed  on  this 
point.  In  his  recent  book  on  the  Social  Question,  Herr  T.  Ziegler, 
professor  at  the  University  of  Strasbourg,  expresses  himself  as  follows  : — 

"While  'Self-help'  is  the  dominant  tendency  in  England,  recourse 
to  the  State  is  the  characteristic  of  Germany.  We  are  a  people  that 
for  centuries  has  been  accustomed  to  be  under  a  guardian.  Moreover, 
during  the  last  twenty  years,  the  strong  arm  of  Bismarck,  by  assuring 
us  security,  has  caused  us  to  lose  the  sentiment  of  responsibility  and 
initiative.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  in  difficult  and  even  in  easy  cases 
we  appeal  for  the  aid  and  protection  of  the  State,  and  abandon  ourselves 
to  its  initiative." 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         229 


reach  it  we  have  still  to  traverse  certain  phases. 
Socialism  will  be  too  oppressive  a  regime  to  last.  It 
will  make  people  regret  the  age  of  Tiberius  and 
Caligula  and  will  bring  back  that  age.  One  some- 
times asks  how  the  Romans  of  the  time  of  the 
emperors  so  easily  supported  the  wild  ferocity  of 
certain  despots.  The  reason  is  that  they  too  had 
traversed  social  struggles,  civil  wars,  and  proscriptions, 
and  the  experience  had  cost  them  their  character. 
They  had  come  to  consider  these  tyrants  as  the 
ultimate  instruments  of  their  salvation.  They  put 
up  with  everything  from  them,  because  they  did  not 
know  how  to  replace  them.  The  truth  is  they  cannot 
be  replaced.  After  them  came  the  final  catastrophe 
brought  about  by  the  barbarians.  History  always 
turns  in  the  same  circle. 


CHAPTER    II 

GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS 

\  ^  TE  have  already  remarked,  in  the  Introduction 
**  to  this  work,  that  it  was  merely  a  short 
summary,  a  sort  of  synthesis  of  the  volumes  we  have 
devoted  to  the  history  of  civilisations.  Each  of  the 
chapters  composing  it  should  be  regarded  as  the  con- 
clusion arrived  at  by  anterior  investigations.  It  is 
very  difficult  in  consequence  to  still  further  condense 
ideas  so  condensed  already.  I  shall  attempt,  how- 
ever, for  the  benefit  of  readers  whose  time  is  precious, 
to  present  in  the  guise  of  very  brief  propositions  the 
fundamental  principles  which  represent  the  philosophy 
of  this  work. 

A     race     possesses     psychological    characteristics 
almost  as  fixed  as  its  physical  characteristics.     Like 

the   anatomic   species,  the   psychological    species    is 

230 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES  231 

only  transformed  as  the  result  of  the  accumulations 
of  ages. 

To  the  fixed  and  hereditary  psychological 
characteristics,  whose  association  forms  the  mental 
constitution  of  a  race,  are  adjoined,  as  in  the  case 
of  all  anatomic  species,  accessory  elements  created 
by  diverse  modifications  of  the  environment.  Being 
incessantly  renewed  they  endow  a  race  with  a  certain 
measure  of  apparent  variability. 

The  mental  constitution  of  a  race  represents  not 
only  the  synthesis  of  the  living  beings  which  compose 
it,  but  more  particularly  that  of  all  the  ancestors  who 
have  contributed  to  its  formation.  It  is  not  the 
living  but  the  dead  who  play  the  preponderating  role 
in  the  existence  of  a  people.  They  are  the  creators 
of  its  morality  and  the  unconscious  sources  of  its 
conduct. 

The  very  great  anatomic  differences  which  dis- 
tinguish the  various  human  races  are  accompanied  by 
not  less  considerable  psychological  differences.  When 
only  the  average  representatives  of  each  race  are  com- 
pared, the  mental  differences  often  appear  somewhat 
slight.  They  become  immense  as  soon  as  the  com- 
parison is  instituted  between  the  most  elevated 
elements  of  each  race.  It  is  then  found  that  what 


232  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

more  especially  differentiates  superior  from  inferior 
races  is  the  fact  that  the  former  possess  a  certain 
number  of  highly  developed  minds,  whereas  the  latter 
possess  no  such  minds. 

The  individuals  of  which  inferior  races  are  com- 
posed display  a  manifest  equality  between  one 
another.  In  proportion  as  races  rise  in  the  scale 
of  civilisation,  their  members  tend  to  become  more 
and  more  differentiated.  The  inevitable  effect  of 
civilisation  is  to  differentiate  individuals  and  races. 
In  consequence  peoples  are  not  progressing  towards 
equality  but  towards  a  growing  inequality. 

The  life  of  a  people  and  all  the  manifestations 
of  its  civilisation  are  merely  the  reflection  of  its  soul, 
the  visible  signs  of  something  invisible  but  very 
real.  Exterior  events  are  only  the  apparent  surface 
of  the  hidden  framework  by  which  they  are  deter- 
mined. 

It  is  neither  chance  nor  exterior  circumstances, 
and  still  less  political  institutions,  that  play  the 
fundamental  role  in  the  history  of  a  people.  It  is 
more  especially  the  character  of  a  people  that 
fashions  its  destiny. 

The  various  elements  of  the  civilisation  of  a 
people  being  only  the  outward  signs  of  its  mental 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         233 

constitution,  the  expression  of  certain  modes  of 
feeling  and  thinking  peculiar  to  a  people,  these 
elements  cannot  be  transmitted  unchanged  to  peoples 
of  a  different  mental  constitution  :  all  that  can  be 
transmitted  is  the  exterior,  superficial,  and  unimpor- 
tant forms. 

The  profound  differences  existing  between  the 
mental  constitutions  of  the  various  peoples  result  in 
these  peoples  viewing  the  world  in  very  dissimilar 
lights.  The  consequence  is  that  they  feel,  reason 
and  act  in  very  different  ways,  and  they  therefore 
find,  when  they  come  in  contact,  that  they  are  in 
disagreement  on  all  questions.  Most  of  the  wars  that 
take  up  so  large  a  portion  of  history  are  the  outcome 
of  these  dissentiments.  Wars  of  conquest,  wars  of 
religion,  wars  of  dynasties,  have  always  in  reality 
been  wars  of  races. 

An  agglomeration  of  men  of  different  origin  do 
not  form  a  race,  do  not  possess,  that  is,  a  collective 
soul,  until,  as  the  result  of  interbreeding  continued 
during  centuries,  and  of  a  similar  existence  under 
identical  conditions,  the  agglomeration  has  acquired 
common  sentiments,  common  interests,  and  common 
beliefs. 

Among   civilised    peoples   there  are   scarcely  any 


234  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES: 

natural  races,  but  only  artificial  races  created  by 
historical  conditions. 

Changes  of  environment  only  influence  pro- 
foundly new  races,  that  is,  mixtures  of  old  races 
whose  ancestral  characteristics  have  become  dis- 
sociated by  cross  breeding.  Heredity  is  the  only 
force  powerful  enough  to  struggle  against  heredity. 
Changes  of  environment  have  only  a  destructive 
action  on  races  the  fixity  of  whose  characteristics  has 
not  been  affected  by  cross  breeding.  An  ancient 
race  perishes  rather  than  undergo  the  transformations 
requisite  to  enable  it  to  adapt  itself  to  a  new 
environment. 

The  acquisition  of  a  solidly  constituted  collective 
soul  marks  the  apogee  of  the  greatness  of  a  people. 
The  dissociation  of  this  soul  always  marks  the  hour 
of  its  decadence.  The  intervention  of  foreign  ele- 
ments constitutes  one  of  the  surest  means  of  this 
dissociation  being  compassed. 

Like  anatomic  species,  psychological  species  are 
subject  to  the  action  of  time.  They  too  are  fated  to 
grow  old  and  die  out.  Always  very  slow  in  being 
ormed,  it  is  possible  for  them  on  the  contrary  to  dis- 
appear rapidly.  It  suffices  to  trouble  profoundly  the 
functioning  of  their  organs  to  cause  them  to  under- 


ITS  INFLUENCE  ON  THEIR  EVOLUTION         235 

go  retrograde  transformations  whose  consequence  is 
often  their  prompt  destruction.  Peoples  are  centuries 
long  in  acquiring  a  certain  mental  constitution,  which 
they  sometimes  lose  in  a  very  short  space  of  time. 
The  ascending  path  which  leads  them  to  a  high  level 
of  civilisation  is  always  very  long,  while  the  decline 
which  leads  them  to  decadence  is  most  often  very 
rapid. 

Together  with  character,  ideas  should  be  ac- 
counted one  of  the  principal  factors  in  the  evolution 
of  a  civilisation.  They  do  not  exert  an  influence 
until,  after  a  very  slow  evolution,  they  have  been 
transformed  into  sentiments  and  have  come  in  con- 
sequence to  form  part  of  the  character.  They  are 
then  unaffected  by  argument,  and  take  a  very  long 
time  to  disappear.  Each  civilisation  is  the  outcome 
of  a  small  number  of  universally  accepted  funda- 
mental ideas. 

Religious  ideas  are  among  the  most  important 
of  the  guiding  ideas  of  a  civilisation.  The  majority 
of  historical  events  have  been  due  indirectly  to  the 
variation  of  religious  beliefs.  The  history  of  humanity 
has  always  run  parallel  to  that  of  its  gods.  Such  is 
the  power  of  these  children  of  our  dreams  that  even 
this  name  cannot  be  changed  without  the  whole 


mis 


236  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  PEOPLES 

world  being  thrown  at  once  into  confusion.  The 
birth  of  new  gods  has  always  marked  the  dawn  of 
a  new  civilisation,  and  their  disappearance  has 
always  marked  its  decline. 


UNWIN   BROTHERS,   THE   GRESHAM  PRESS,  WOKING   AND   LONDON. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

EDUCATION-PSYCHOLOGY 


TEL. 

This  book  is  due  on  (fit  fan  i  <1|||   ihiit^i  il  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 





DEC  24  1971 


DEC    3  REC'D  -i  PI 


APR  4    1974 


APR  4    REC'D -7PM 


JUL  29  W 


AUG  0  6  1987 


LD  21A-15m-l,'71 
(P2357slO)476 — A-32 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


re  45 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


